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| Users enjoying expanded Pueblo wildlife area | |||
| Sunday, November 20, 2011 15:05 |
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The Pueblo State Wildlife Area, which was increased by more than half in recent years, offers a variety of outdoor adventures, including hunting, fishing, hiking, wildlife-watching, picnicking, and horseback and mountain bike riding. Many users are hunters and anglers, said district wildlife manager Gretchen Holschu. The area is home to pronghorn, mule and white-tailed deer, coyote, bobcat, fox, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, badger, black-tailed prairie dog, cottontail rabbit, scaled quail, wild turkey, dove, burrowing owl, ferruginous and red-tailed hawk, plus occasional elk and black bear, osprey, bald eagle — in winter — and golden eagle. Snakes, lizards and cold-water stream and lake fish also are at home there, and tarantulas often can be seen in fall. "It's beautiful in there. We love it," Pearle Sandstrom-Smith, of Pueblo, told the Pueblo Chieftain. "It's not really crowded. You see badgers once in a blue moon, coyotes, mule deer; I think we've seen white-tailed deer, and the prairie dogs are a riot to watch. And they bring out the raptors. We saw fresh mountain lion tracks once, in the mud down in the willows, and we very noisily backed out. The lions like water because they can get the ducks." PHOTO: Pueblo State Wildlife Area The Pueblo Chieftain |
