Bird lore - Project Puffin

A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF
Official Organ of The Audubon Societies
Vol. XVIII July—August, 1916 No. 4
The Birds of Monument Valley Park, Colorado Springs,
Colorado
By EDWARD R. WARREN, Colorado Springs. Colo.
COLORADO SPRINGS is one of the most fortunate places in the
country in its possession of a system of parks which cities of many
times its size would be proud of and glad to own. We owe this
largely to the generosity of one of the founders of the town, one may say the
founder, General Wm. J. Palmer, who, in the last years of his life, gave two
large tracts of land, laid out in completed parks, besides roads and mountain
trails, to Colorado Springs, together with funds toward their maintenance for
a certain period—a magnificent gift. The present article has to do with but
one of these tracts, known as Monument Valley Park, a long, narrow strip on
the west side of the city, traversed its entire length by Monument Creek,
which flows in a southerly direction. The length of this park, from end to end
in an airline, is a trifle over two miles, its greatest width about a thousand feet,
while in places it is less than half that. The western boundary, which is the
right of way of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is quite regular, but the
eastern is the reverse and much broken. The ground is all the comparatively
level flat or plain forming the banks of the stream, which flows in a channel or
bed ten or twelve feet deep. Normally there is but little water in this stream,
but heavy rains have filled it at times and even caused it to overflow its banks.
These rises are always very sudden and come from the violent storms in summer
known as "cloud bursts." Because of these floods, it has been found necessary
to protect the banks with riprap and concrete retaining walls.
The northern half of the tract has been left much as it was originally, so
far as the trees and shrubs are concerned, though of course walks have been
laid out, and ponds excavated, and additional trees and shrubs, with a few
flower beds, have been planted. It is this portion, which is not far from my home,
where most of my observations have been made, and which is shown on the
accompanying map. The southern half is somewhat more formally laid out.