9 February 2025

Archive for May, 2020

Behaviors

Monday, May 25th, 2020
Lazuli Bunting (female), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 25 May 2020.
Lazuli Bunting (female).

After a few nights of not quite enough sleep (ever since the bakyard mountain lion), I finally had a great one. Thus, the sun had already topped the peaks by the time dog and I hit mountain trail.

Somehow, accidentally (as is usually the case), we ended up doing our favorite high loop: up the shaded valley, around and over the ridge above Millcreek Canyon, down to the Pipeline Outlook, and back.

[Note: I’m still learning the names of places here. Please forgive my past misnomers.]

The weather was cool, breezy, nearly cloudless, lovely. The birds were fairly abundant, interesting, fun to watch, and maddeningly uncooperative photo subjects. Still, I had a blast—in particular, today, observing behavioral peculiarities.

For instance, not 50 feet from the trailhead, a magpie fledgling fluttered over onto a low branch very near Jack and me. This caused the parents to freak out, swoop down, and immediately begin to yell at us things like “Away with you, human devils!” Also, “Begone, murderers!” Jack was a lot less fazed than I.

Not long after, I watched a female Lazuli Bunting flit down onto a dead twig not far from the trail. At once this bird ducked its head down, raised its tail, and opened its wings a bit—then began to quiver a little and (just maybe) begin to emit a faint call that might be described as a nearly inaudible “Squee!” (I actually took a little video of this, half-expecting a male to show up and the two of them to get busy, but it didn’t happen.)

That’s not all, but I won’t bore you. Suffice it to say that these little observations of bird behavior never cease to astound and entertain.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked some 1,200 feet up a mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie*
2. California Quail* (v)
3. Black-capped Chickadee** (v)
4. House Finch*
5. Black-chinned Hummingbird
6. Lazuli Bunting
7. Black-headed Grosbeak
8. American Robin* (v)
9. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
10. Spotted Towhee
11. Western Tanager
12. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
13. Pine Siskin
14. Warbling Vireo
15. Sharp-shinned Hawk
16. Chipping Sparrow
17. Bank Swallow†
18. MacGillivray’s Warbler
19. Cliff Swallow
20. Black-throated Gray Warbler
21. Orange-crowned Warbler
22. Tree Swallow†
23. Cooper’s Hawk
24. Hammond’s Flycatcher

Elsewhere

25. European Starling
26. Song Sparrow (v)

Mammals

None

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year bird

Nesting

Sunday, May 24th, 2020
Black-headed Grosbeak mama on the nest, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 24 May 2020.
Black-headed Grosbeak mama on the nest.

An earlier, dryer hike than yesterday’s. Although not quite as birdy, still exceptionally satisfying.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 24 May 2020.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Most notable are subtle differences in behavior among the resident species—differences that mean there’s been nesting, hatching, even fledging going on. Earlier nesters (like Spotted Towhees) have gone a bit quieter and more secretive. Magpies (which might well have the earliest fledglings here) have turned suddenly vocal and pugnacious. And later arrivals have just begun incubating. Like the pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks whose nest near (the trailhead) I found the female occupying today.

The only other actual nest I’ve found is the gnatcatchers’ (a tiny thing above a shady stretch of trail), whose photo you’ve seen here recently. But I know where several other birds’ nests are—or will be—judging by just the behavior of the birds.

(E.g., the male MacGillivray’s warbler whose declarative song is evidence of its claim to a tangly mass of foliage, waiting expectantly for just the right female to arrive.)

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:45 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. California Quail (v)
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. Lazuli Bunting
4. House Finch*
5. Song Sparrow* (v)
6. Black-headed Grosbeak
7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher**
8. Broad-tailed Hummingbird (wing-trill)
9. Spotted Towhee
10. American Robin*
11. Black-capped Chickadee (v)
12. Pine Siskin
13. Black-chinned Hummingbird
14. Western Tanager
15. Black-throated Gray Warbler (v)
16. Warbling Vireo (v)
17. Chukar (v)
18. Chipping Sparrow
19. MacGillivray’s Warbler
20. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
21. Hammond’s Flycatcher†

Elsewhere

22. Eurasian Collared Dove

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year bird

My Tub Runneth Over

Saturday, May 23rd, 2020
Black-throated Sparrow, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 23 May 2020.
Black-throated Sparrow (a lifer for me).

Light precipitation last night—rain in the neighborhood, snow up on the peaks—so we got a late start, dog and I. The morning was chilly and overcast, and the trails were slick with mud. I had no idea what I’d encounter.

MacGillivray’s Warbler, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 23 May 2020.
MacGillivray’s Warbler.

A lot, turns out. Twenty-five species (actually 26, if you count the unidentified Empidonax), including two lifers. The first—a Black-throated Sparrow—just flitted up out of nowhere, without a sound. Was lucky to get a quick pic or two. The second was near the end of our hike, when another Empidonax popped up to a perch. Got a video of that quiet, nondescript bird, which (lucky for me) was flicking his tail down, then up—a sure sign that it was a Gray Flycatcher.

But the biggest deal for me was that right about the time the sun came out—beating all odds—I somehow managed a good look at the MacGillivray’s Warbler that’d been driving me nuts for the past four or five days.

Beyond all that, other surprise birds appeared—like my first Olive-sided Warbler in Utah, perched very near a random Dark-eyed Junco. Got real wet, slipped in mud a couple times, but felt like I’d just had some kind of serendipitous bath or something.

My tub runneth over.

24 May 2020 update: I’m told my Black-throated Sparrow was just the second reported sighting in Salt Lake County.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Mourning Dove
2. Black-billed Magpie**
3. California Quail
4. Song Sparrow* (v)
5. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
6. Black-headed Grosbeak
7. Lazuli Bunting**
8. American Robin* (v)
9. Spotted Towhee
10. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
11. Pine Siskin (v)
12. Black-chinned Hummingbird
13. Black-capped Chickadee (v)
14. Black-throated Sparrow†‡
15. Chipping Sparrow
16. House Finch* (v)
17. Warbling Vireo
18. Broad-tailed Hummingbird (wing-trill)
19. Black-throated Gray Warbler (v)
20. MacGillivray’s Warbler
21. Western Tanager
22. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
23. Gray Flycatcher†‡
24. Dark-eyed Junco
25. Olive-sided Flycatcher†

Elsewhere

26. Northern Flicker
27. Eurasian Collared Dove

Mammals

None

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year bird
‡Lifer

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



3IP Logo
©1997–2025 by 3IP