Don't Call Me Ishmael: Seasons of the SLV (Late spring edition)

Cliff swallows and nests

A geography as broad as the San Luis Valley has enough wide-open spaces for many flourishes. Wedged into the valley’s northeast corner, the Great Sand Dunes represent just one.

Some of the others lie just off the main roads. Scores of county roads crisscross the valley. A series of agricultural canals snake through the high-altitude farmland. The canals and the marshes that form around them turn the SLV into a birders’ paradise.

Several months ago (although it feels like years), I watched the sandhill cranes, when they had a stopover on their spring migration. What visits at the tail end of winter won’t inhabit the SLV come summer or even a month later.

Thanks to ample surface water, the valley has four seasons of wildlife, and different species nest in the tall grasses in late spring. South of Alamosa and east of the Rio Grande, one can find immediate solitude amid a crush of wildlife. At a great distance below their sheltering mountains, the Great Sand Dunes remain in sight.

The Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge sits among the canals down a lightly traveled gravel road. Part of the same refuge complex that includes Monte Vista NWR and Baca NWR (closed to the public). Alamosa has a scenic trail and a two-mile trail, the latter closing for bird-nesting.

Unidentified hawk nest

The birds don’t take long to reveal themselves. A large hawk nest sat in a tree close to the road, with two adults guarding it. I could not identify them as red-tailed hawks or another similar species – the nest’s modest size clearly ruled out any eagle species. With a canal separating the tree from the road, the birds showed more patience with our photography, although they eventually flew off.

We could not walk the trail, but we could drive the loop. The driving route is a bit more rustic than the loop at Monte Vista – often the road is just a levy between the various canals - but provides similar closeups to wildlife. The refuge’s large visitor center was closed. Fortunately it is not essential to visiting.

Another round of bird-watching comes easily. No one needs to go farther than the bathrooms to find the muddy nests of cliff swallows sculpted under the eaves. Cliff swallows are common in Colorado but it’s nice to observe the nests of these busy birds up close.

The most common birds in the refuge red-winged blackbirds and the yellow-headed blackbirds. In the calm canal waters, waterfowl dominated. The cinnamon teal and other ducks dove for fish and insects. The first mosquitoes of the year buzzed around the canals, although not yet in heavy numbers.

Something low and powerful moved rapidly through the waters before ducking out of site. Beavers live in these canals. While they have few options for tall trees beyond the occasional cottonwood stand, but the abundant plant life and places for lodges still suits them.

Male red-winged blackbird

Don’t worry about crowds at Alamosa NWR. While cars queued up to enter the Great Sand Dunes, we didn’t see a single other car on our 90-plus minutes in the refuge. The loop does require a slower pace.

Kill the engine for a few minutes. The swell of competing birdsong becomes entrancing. Let the birds drift in. Odds favors some type of blackbird landing on nearby cattails. Ducks will take flight at some point. A hawk might soar.

A short detour off U.S. 160, the valley’s main road, will drop the willing into the wildlife refuge. Even that short detour will run too long for some, which is fine. For those of us who take the turn, the lack of visitors preserves the wildness of place a stone’s throw from civilization.