I have two daily dates with individual birds these days. First is the Downy Woodpecker I’ve been meeting nearly every day for weeks. It’s a male (who replaced the female I had been dating), and I hear him rapping gently in the burnt patch. More than once I’ve seen him pull fat yellow grubs from the trunks of the scorched scrub oaks. He lets us come near, Jack and me.
I’ve been meeting nearly every day for weeks. It’s a male (who replaced the female I had been dating), and I hear him rapping gently in the burnt patch. More than once I’ve seen him pull fat yellow grubs from the trunks of the scorched scrub oaks. He lets us come near, Jack and me.
The second—for the past five days, at least—is a particular Townsend’s Solitaire. A least I assume it’s the same bird, as I’ve found it in the same stretch of the Coyote Canyon trail. Today, for the first time, I didn’t see it, but I hard its distinctive territorial call (a single musical note, repeated about once every two seconds).
It’s a thing you get to do when you hike the same patch every day for months (and years): you get to know not only the landscape, but its occupants—and even its individual occupants—rather well.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:35 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
The forecast snow arrived overnight, light snow, dry snow, about an inch. Made for slightly slipper footing, but neither of us took a digger, dog and me. Really foggy at first—but things cleared up late in our hike.
Not many birds to start, but things ended up with a flurry. First, ascending the leafy canyon, I wondered if I might see a (the?) Townsend’s Solitaire for a fourth straight morning, doubted it, then saw one (it?). And if that weren’t enough of a nice surprise, at least thirty juncos fluttered around us for a short spell.
And at the end, the voices of three quick species—bam, bam, bam.
(Already wondering if tomorrow will bring another solitaire.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:44 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
1. House Finch** (v) 2. Black-capped Chickadee** 3. Spotted Towhee** 4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 5. Pine Siskin (v) 6. Black-billed Magpie 7. Downy Woodpecker 8. Townsend’s Solitaire 9. Dark-eyed Junco* 10. Rock Pigeon* 11. American Robin (v) 12. Northern Flicker (v) 13. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
Elsewhere
14. Eurasian Collared-dove
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
Ten towhees today. Lots of juncos, too. Pigeons down in the near basin. But the big news (to me) was the solitaire.
For the third straight morning, dog and I encountered a Townsend’s Solitaire while ascending leafy Coyote Canyon. I can’t help but wonder if it’s the same bird—but the first day I thought I saw a pair.
My feeling is that, at this season, in these particular conditions, the tangled vegetation offers food and safety for these lovely birds. Whatever the case, we’ll be taking our time ascending (unlike in previous days, when we marched up more or less oblivious to what I thought was mostly a bird-free zone.
(Note: I’m pretty sure Jack didn’t actually notice the solitaire. Could be wrong.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:31 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
