7 November 2026

Archive for November, 2019

Birds and Bones

Sunday, November 3rd, 2019
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 03 November 2019.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay.
Black-billed Magpie, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 03 November 2019.
Black-billed Magpie.

Another hike without my dog. Only about ten days to go. (Ten days?!) But it was a nice, cool, sunny mid-morning, and a couple wild birds posed for portraits.

Notable was a Black-billed Magpie that I came upon picking at old mule deer bones. It had such a one-track mind that it was fine with my staying within about twenty or thirty feet of it, snapping photos.

Also a bunch of scrub-jays and a scattering of juncos.

Back home, out my office window, I watched another kinglet poking about in the greenery—well, brownery, I guess.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 10:30 a.m. (MST), I hiked a few hundred feet up the mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie*
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. House Finch*
5. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
6. Dark-eyed Junco**
7. Northern Flicker (v)

Elsewhere

8. Eurasian Collared Dove
9. Song Sparrow
10. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere

**Voice only elsewhere

The High Desert

Saturday, November 2nd, 2019
Sharp-shinned Hawk, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 02 November 2019.
Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Downy Woodpecker (female), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 02 November 2019.
Downy Woodpecker (female).

I’m kinda diggin’ it here in the high desert. Not as many bird species as on the coast of Maine, where varied ecosystems butt up against each other. This is the high desert—and that’s that.

However, the birds are here. Bird life adapts to high, dry places like this. And this day—despite my continued feeling of guilt for leaving my dog Jack at home—brought plenty of interesting sightings. A sharpie circling right at the start, for instance. No eagles or solitaires, but a surprise Downy Woodpecker.

Cloudless and not too cold. Burned a bunch of calories and returned high on endorphins. No regrets but one (no Jack).

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 12:15 p.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up the mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie*
2. Sharp-shinned Hawk
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. House Finch*
5. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
6. Dark-eyed Junco** (v)
7. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
8. Downy Woodpecker
9. Canyon Wren (v)

Elsewhere

10. Eurasian Collared Dove
11. Northern Flicker (v)
13. Song Sparrow
14. House Sparrow
15. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere

**Voice only elsewhere

Creeper and Solitaires

Friday, November 1st, 2019
Townsend’s Solitaire, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 01 November 2019.
Townsend’s Solitaire (with juniper berry).
Golden Eagle, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 01 November 2019.
Golden Eagle.

It seems highly paradoxical: another hike without my dog, another fruitful excursion. This day saw more than one eagle flyover (also saw one from my desk back in the neighborhood), more than one Townsend’s Solitaire, and—the first bird up the mountainside—the call of a Brown Creeper, a first-in-Utah bird for me.

Multiple eagles and multiple solitaires was the coolest thing. Also the fine, clear, nippy first of November weather.

Still felt guilty, though.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 11:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up the mountain.

1. Brown Creeper (v)
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. Black-capped Chickadee*
4. House Finch*
5. Dark-eyed Junco**
6. Golden Eagle*
7. Northern Flicker*
8. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
9. Townsend’s Solitaire
10. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)

Elsewhere

11. European Starling
12. Eurasian Collared Dove
13. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
14. House Sparrow (v)

v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere

**Voice only elsewhere

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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