Inventories:

Red Top

Birds are excellent indicators of environmental quality and change, and they are one of the most visible and valued components of our native wildlife. Monitoring birds provides data needed to effectively manage bird populations and to understand the effects and sustainability of human activities on ecosystems. Grassland birds are among the highest conservation priorities among North American breeding birds (Sampson and Knopf 1996).

In 2007 Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, examined the breeding bird community on Red Top Ranch in southeastern Pueblo County, Colorado. We conducted 67 point-counts using standardized methodology for five days between May 15 and June 15. We performed the point counts within the Shortgrass Management Area (SMA) to determine the presence and relative abundance of eight species: Bald Eagle, Burrowing Owl, Cassin’s Sparrow, Ferruginous Hawk, Lark Bunting, Loggerhead Shrike, Longbilled Curlew, and Mountain Plover. Other detected species were also recorded. We detected a total of 783 individual birds from 20 different species. Four species – Lark Bunting, Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark and Cassin’s Sparrow – comprised 92% of the individuals.

The overall management goal on Red Top Ranch is to maintain a diverse complex of shortgrass prairie, midgrass prairie, arid shrubland and open juniper woodlands to provide suitable habitat for the eight bird species targeted for protection, as listed above. While overall the property is diverse, high-quality native prairie, this project necessitates more extensive early seral shortgrass prairie than is present (defined by a low density of shrubs, vegetation height <4”, and 30% bare ground). Restoring early seral characteristics to an area large enough to meet the requirements of this project (11,246 acres) is a primary focus of management efforts.