A little nippy this morning. We had no human company on the trail, dog and I, until most of our hike was over. Plenty of wildlife, though.
Mountain Coyote.
For one instance, I spied at least three cottontails hopping around in the grass. For another, I caught sight of a coyote up one grassy slope, eyeing us attentively. For a third, I stumbled onto two lifers, bird-wise. (One, the MacGillivray’s Warbler, had been driving me nuts for two days prior—never got a glimpse of the bird and couldn’t match its song. Today I got a swift peek.)
The weather was mixed but pleasant. The trail seemed friendly, the surroundings turning lush. Tonight will come some rain—so tomorrow might be lusher.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:45 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
At 5:50 a.m. this morning, a sound out my bedroom window brought me immediately from sleeping soundly to alert and awake. It was the distinctive, bright whistle of a mountain lion.
I only learned the sound a couple weeks ago, when I first heard it—and soon after saw (at a distance) what animal was doing the whistling. I’d then researched the sound online a bit, and apparently internalized its pitch and timbre. Which is why, upon awakening—instead of running for my camera and trying for photos—I lay there perfectly still with my eyes wide open.
A minute or two later, after I heard the cat’s final kip-kip as it moved away up the hill, I double-checked the recordings I’d found, Sure enough, that had to be a cougar. Later I heard a security cam on a street not far from me had captured a pic of a mountain lion this a.m. So it wasn’t a dream after all.
Thus, today’s hike with Captain Jack came with a little extra distraction—but the only critters I encountered up there were birds.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked some 1,500 feet up a mountain.
’Twas a chilly, gray morning. The air was clean, the sky tumultous. The forecast called for the possibility of thundershowers later. (Only a little light rain came.) Dog and I enjoyed a quick, sweet hike up the trails.
Black-chinned Hummingbird.
Not so many birds, although those we encountered were quite vocal, including one calling in the greenery that I did not recognize. (Possibly an odd-voiced towhee.) The two most photogenic species were—again—Lazuli Bunting and Black-chinned Hummingbird.
Still quite a few resident species I have not seen; still time to see ’em, but I might have to stray from my patch.
And I do love my sweet patch.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:30 a.m., I hiked some 1,500 feet up a mountain.
