A little windy this morning, and few birds to start. As the sun topped the ridge and the air warmed up, more of the usual resident suspects made appearances—especially buntings and towhees.
It’s pretty dry, though. Drought conditions, in fact. Throughout the western states. Summer-like fire warnings with a couple weeks left in spring. Things are still green, and dragonflies are out, and pollinators are tending to multitudes of high desert flowers. But when draught comes to the high desert, there’s room for a little concern.
Still Nature knows what she’s doing. All life’s connected. And precipitation will come. Eventually.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:24 a.m. (8:24 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
A pleasant, rather quiet hike up the deer trails with dog this early morning. The usual suspects—some conspicuously singing, some flitting silently.
Seems the birds were actually a little more active in the neighborhood this day—hummingbirds in the flowers, magpies in the fringes, robins pulling up worms. Also a single male California Quail lurking in the fringes.
Warm in afternoon, but it was a pleasant heat. No longer summerlike in spring.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Dog and I got the trailhead early this morning, while things were still in the mountain shade. Surprisingly cool considering the recent unseasonable heat wave. Fewer birds—but interesting behavior.
Including, on our return trip, a dramatic tryst between pair of Lazuli Buntings. The female seems to start things off, by leaning forward, tail high, and fluttering her wings. The male obliges (the “cloacal kiss” takes about one second), and this little quickie is followed by one or two more. I suppose in a couple weeks o so we’ll see a bunch of nestlings—then summertime fledglings demanding to be fed.
Several other resident species have gone quiet, meantime, suggesting they, too, have eggs or hatchlings. This miraculous annual reproductive cycle happens pretty quickly by our sense of time—but continues dependably year after year after century after millennium.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:48 a.m. (7:48 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
