Karval hosts a spring festival built around the mountain plover

Not every Colorado nature draw is a mountain. Out on the Lincoln County plains, the community of Karval is known for a small brown bird: the mountain plover. Each spring, Karval hosts a Mountain Plover Festival, and birders travel here to see it.

The reason the bird shows up is the land itself. Mountain plovers favor shortgrass prairie and open, fallow fields, the kind of country that surrounds Karval, and they nest on the ground in those wide, low spaces. The festival, usually in late April or early May, organizes tours and viewing so visitors can find plovers and other prairie wildlife without trampling the habitat.

For a newcomer, this is a useful window into the Eastern Plains. The prairie can look empty at 60 miles an hour, but it is full of life that rewards a slower look — plovers, pronghorn, owls, and more. It is also a reminder that much of this land is working ranch ground, and that respectful access usually means going with an organized tour rather than wandering onto private fields.

Festival dates and tour sign-ups change each year. Before planning a trip, confirm this year’s schedule with the festival and the Lincoln County tourism site, and see Colorado Parks and Wildlife to learn about the bird.