Frosty morn. Clear skies. Snow tomorrow, so they say.
My early hike with dog began with a hawk sighting—a sharpie zipping over to the top of a far utility pole. Snapped a couple photos just for grins, and later noticed in one of them an approaching kestrel. Weird.
The day warmed pretty quickly as the sun topped the ridge, and we encountered birds aplenty. Finches and juncos mostly. Yellowrumps in town again.
Later, in the neighborhood, I watched a magpie yank the tip of the tail of a rock squirrel filling its cheek pouches with fallen plums. The squirrel lept in the air, and the magpie took off.
Meantime, out back of my place, a scrub-jay went about its daily business: digging up and re-caching peanuts.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up the mountain.
1. Sharp-shinned Hawk*
2. American Kestrel***
3. House Finch*
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay* (v)
5. American Goldfinch
6. Dark-eyed Junco
7. Black-capped Chickadee
8. Northern Flicker
9. Black-billed Magpie
Elsewhere
10. Rock Pigeon
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler
12. European Starling
13. Eurasian Collared Dove
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
***Spotted in a photo of another bird
