Good news and not so bad news this morning: Jack seems fine and was eager to hike this morning; not nearly the excitement of yesterday, bird-wise, but still an enjoyable excursion.
Cooler, breezier, mostly clear. The Rock Wrens are still in the little old quarry, so maybe they’ll nest there this year. Gnatcatchers all over the place, with those antic, highly entertaining songs and calls of theirs. The usual spring warblers, Warbling Vireos, chippies, a Cooper’s Hawk.
Dog really dug our hike, and so did I.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:05 a.m. (8:05 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Good and bad news this morning. The bad news first: Jack didn’t want to go. He’s had a couple episodes the past few days (stick lodged in throat, finally swallowed, and a missed jump into the truck after a hike, causing a minor fall), and he’s been a little lethargic since, so we have a vet appointment on Monday—although yesterday he was fine on the trails. Still, I figured he could use a day off (first since October 2019).
So although I thought about him the whole way, I ended up doing a ridge hike—a long, slow walk uphill a good ways, then downhill again, all the while observing a whole heap of migrating birds.
Pretty great hike this nearly cloudless morning. Not far along, I spied today’s first-of-year bird: a female Bullock’s Oriole perched in a treed atop the bluff. I heard it first—its raspy chatter and a few more musical notes—and got a distant photo.
Also got a few first glimpses of a Warbling Vireo (the species has been around for several days, but I finally laid eyes on one), a couple flickers (for a change), a couple grosbeaks.
Saw no others on the trail, neither humans nor dogs. Just man other plant and animal species.
Maybe more migrants tomorrow.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:30 a.m. (8:30 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
