The magpies have fledged. Pretty sure the scrub-jays, too. Certainly the starlings have. But up on the mountain trails, a few species have yet to build their nests—or have just built them, just laid, or are still incubating eggs (or warming nestlings). Gnatcatchers are still sitting on the nest I found.
I expect the youngsters to start making subtle begging sounds any day now. The adults are surely making plenty of noise when a human and/or a dog come near. Or, heaven forbid, a scrub-jay: Today I watched a tiny Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher dive-bomb a jay that had dared to approach to near its nest. Over and over. It drove that big bird a good hundred feet away, at least.
I admire the feisty little gnatcatchers. Not sure the gnats agree.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
Not long after I moved to SLC last summer, I met a little covey of neighbors: Quentin Quail†† and family. I’d never seen a California Quail before, and here were whole families of them, clicking and scrambling, sprinting across the roads, fluttering up onto rooftops and into trees.
Not until this spring, though, did I realize many of them moved up the slopes to have little quails. Nowadays dog and I encounter them all along the trails we hike each morning.
They’re a little skittish, a little talkative—but all in all pretty likable neighbors.
††Quentin Quail was a character in a Chuck Jones cartoon for Merry Melodies released in 1946.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
My first bird photo this morning was a blue image of a Song Sparrow singing from the weathervane atop a neighbor’s garage. This sparrow has hung around the bushy side yard since I moved here last summer—persisting through winter. It’s lived here a good while, I can tell.
Song Sparrows are one of several species Utah shares with Maine. Black-capped Chickadees are another. Both have different accents out here: the chickadees’ casual burbly notes are brighter and have a distinct inflection; the song sparrows’ phrasing sounds higher-pitched, the trills especially.
It’s comforting to awaken to the familiar voice of a Song Sparrow. It and the chickadee serve, to me, as proof that Nature transcends space and time.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
