Mike in the Wild

Durango has always been one of my favorite ski towns. Purgatory ski resort is thirty minutes away, and Wolf Creek with its abundance of powder is just an hour and a half drive.  During my frequent winter visits, I have mostly ignored the Animas River that flowed through town.  In the cold weather, the waterway was gray and icy, its riverbanks lined with snow and leafless trees.  However in early June, as I recently discovered, the river was flowing heavy with snowmelt, and its lush banks teamed with birds.  With sunrise temperatures in the low fifties, the Animas was actually inviting me for a morning run.  And as always on any trail, I was hopeful I'd encounter a variety of birds.  Even in my hotel's parking lot, I spied a magpie, apparently curious about the extensive collection of trucks.  While I followed Bennett Street to reach the river, a pair of deer munched on a home's front-yard shrubs.  When I arrived close to the riverfront at 32nd Str...