Much unlike yesterday’s lowery overcast, this morning’s sky had no clouds in it, and the air carried quite a chill. Still fun to watch the doings of the wild bird life—especially, this morning, the Black-chinned Hummingbirds.
Broad-tails are also nesting around here somewhere, but it’s the black-chinneds that are zipping around everywhere above the scrubby surrounds. I’ve learned the peculiar hum their wings make as they zip by, as well as the fluty sounds those wings can emit when they’re doing their “U” display—zip up, pause zip down and up, pause, back and forth in the exaggerated shape of the alphabets twenty-first letter.
Today, I watched this display in minature, as a black-chinned made little declarative U’s in front of clump of sagebrush. I spied another hummer within the slump—rival? potential mate?—as the U-maker decided to perch for a bit.
That’s when I took this picture.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:11 a.m. (8:11 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Showers forecast for this morning, but no rain had fallen when dog and I arrived at the trailhead. An odd morning, though—chilly, mostly overcast, and relatively quiet, bird-wise. Southerly breezes were herding the clouds along, but not much in the way of obvious migration.
Saw a hawk but couldn’t ID it. Heard a couple odd songs/calls but couldn’t spot their sources. Chased a vireo but couldn’t catch it. Saw what I thought was a titmouse but couldn’t confirm.
Finally did get a pic of a flycatcher. They’re always hard to identify, but this one (like another I’d caught a glimpse of earlier) had a distinctive whit! note. Plus, it pumped its tail a bit. Later, on consulting allaboutbirds.org, I placed the note, the tail-pump, and the general field marks—short primaries making the tail look longer, white eye-ring visible especially behind the eye—and am pleased to call it my second Dusky Flycatcher of spring.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:38 a.m. (8:38 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
What a morning. Twenty-one species, including a first-of-year Western Tanager (only a few minutes after I’d been lamenting not having seen one yet), a couple warblers (none yesterday), and a drop-in visit by a Turkey Vulture.
A lot of people think vultures are ugly, it seems—no doubt because they provide the noble service of cleaning up dead stuff all over the globe. I think they’re pretty handsome birds. Then again, I think all critters are handsome in their own way. Just please deliver me from being in the vicinity of a vulture that pukes. (I know from experience.)
It was a cooler day than yesterday, and more cool days to come. But pleasant. Truly springlike. Flowers blooming, pollinators pollinating, and ever on the periphery—wild birds.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:03 a.m. (8:03 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
