Wetlands host bird migrations

By Stephen Hlawaty
Outdoors Columnist

Let's just say at the outset that snapping turtles and I do not get along. The two occasions where I've had the chance to come up close and personal with these prehistoric legacies have been in and around wetlands.

I first stumbled across a snapping turtle while on a bog hike with my fellow campers of Rogers Environmental Education Center in upstate New York. We were up to our waists in still bog water, plodding through 2 feet of the thickest, mid-Atlantic mud we'd ever known, when I stepped on what I thought was a rock.

Enthused by the solid purchase this rock provided, I eagerly stepped up, leaned forward, and propelled myself that much quicker through the bog. But before my other leg would sink through the mud to complete the stride, I felt a sharp sting to my foot on the rock.

Bending down to feel for my foot through the blackness of the water, I felt the rock move. It wasn't until I pulled the rock from underfoot that I noticed it to be a snapping turtle. With a death grip on the sides of its shell, black water dripping from the end of its tail, I raised the turtle above the water. When our eyes met, I could have sworn I noticed a slight grin curving from underneath its hooked beak.

I would meet with a snapping turtle again some 15 years later while hiking near the Williams Natural Area in Fort Collins. A turtle had crossed our path and was nose-up to a nearby wire fence, still moving its legs in a vain attempt to get through. I thought it would be a good idea to pick the turtle up and face it toward the water. It wasn't. When I grabbed the sides of its shell to turn it around, the turtle lunged its neck around to bite my hand. Luckily, it missed. I later found out that snapping turtles could reach halfway back to their tails with their snappers and make short work of eating a finger or two. His was a warning to me to leave all snapping turtles alone. And I do--now.

But our area wetlands--or natural areas as they are more commonly known --are generally not places that invoke the kind of trepidation that my two turtle tales might. Northern Colorado's natural areas are serene, magical places that offer unique outdoor experiences. Set aside and managed by the city, natural areas enhance, restore and protect native animal and plant communities.

Fort Collins currently has 39 natural areas alone and many of these include wetlands. Fishing is allowed in most of these natural areas, with the exceptions being Cottonwood Hollow, Cattail Chorus, Cathy Fromme Prairie, Running Deer Natural Area and the two eastern ponds at Kingfisher Point. Nonmotorized boating is also allowed throughout many natural areas. Along many wetland trails, interpretive signs inform hikers of area flora and fauna.

But aside from fishing, boating and hiking, perhaps the biggest attraction of natural area wetlands is their prime waterfowl viewing potential. The 225-acre Riverbend Ponds Natural Area is excellent for wetland wildlife viewing. The one-time gravel-mining site is now home to a variety of waterfowl, including herons, rails, bitterns, cormorants, red-winged blackbirds and shorebirds.

The 12-acre Gustav Swanson Natural Area is a "living research site" for studying alternative landscaping and management methods. Here you'll find migrant warblers, screech owls, woodpeckers and magpies, as well as great blue herons, mallards, kingfishers and common mergansers.

The 93-acre Cottonwood Hollow Natural Area features two ponds that have been reclaimed to create habitat specifically for shorebirds, such as red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds, egrets, herons, sandpipers, pelicans and killdeer. The trails surrounding this area are for pedestrians only. No dogs, horses or bicycles allowed.

One of the best times to visit these wetlands is during bird migration. While most of us are familiar with the north-south migrations of large birds, many of these wetlands provide temporary sanctuary for the lesser-known upstream-downstream and east-west migrations of hummingbirds, nighthawks, sandpipers, Franklins gulls and blue-winged and cinnamon teals. And now --from October through November--is primetime viewing of such migrations.

For more information on natural areas and wetlands, visit the city of Fort Collins web site at http://fcgov.com/naturalareas/ or call 221-6600. In the end, natural area wetlands provide a serene escape from the city, all within city limits, providing you don't step on any snapping turtles.