While I’m out looking for wild birds to photograph, sometimes a mammal pops into view. And of course I cannot resist.
This warm morning, it was a Mountain Cottontail. (My usually alert dog didn’t seem to notice—but he’s never been a chaser, so I’m not sure.) It began to hop away, but then everybody stopped, and I watched it mosey over and begin to munch on a sprig dry grass.
Otherwise, a lovely little hike. Plenty of birds flitting in the greenery (many with secret fledglings), and not a few on perches, singing.
Ah, summertime.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
The middays will be hot going forward, but the mornings are pretty cool in the mountain shade. Nice long hike with dog this day, stalked a couple heard birds but struck out.
Also got a photo of a Warbling Vireo, though. And a Bullock’s Oriole made an appearance out of the blu.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:15 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Another lovely hike this morning. Encountered only two humans on the trails—as many as rock squirrels. But got glimpses of vireo and grosbeaks and many chickadees. The highlight of the day, however, was a bird I spied out my front window: a female Bullock’s Oriole fluttering around in the roses, hunting insects and flies.
The oriole got me thinking of all the cool birds I’ve seen out there in the yard this past year. Hummingbirds and finches, corvids and sparrows, thrushes and assorted hawks (at least three species). Thinking I might even like to keep a yard list.
Yep, I do cherish my daily hike with Captain Jack. But you don’t really have to travel far to see good birds.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Bird Report is an intermittent record of what's outside my window in Rockport, Maine, USA (44°08'N latitude, 69°06'W longitude), and vicinity. —Brian Willson
