6 November 2026

Archive for January, 2022

Lengthening Photoperiod

Wednesday, January 19th, 2022
Golden Eagle, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 19 January 2022.
Golden Eagle.

A tad cloudier, and a bunch smoggier, and with a little less remnant icy snow—but otherwise another in a similar run of hikes with dog this morning. Then again, more birds than lately.

Most notable were: a solitary robin atop a tree below us down in the neighborhood; a solitary eagle flying around above us near the ridge. (The inversion cloud reached way up there where the eagle was.

Still some deer. No cottontails. Finches and chickadees were singing, though. They know the photoperiod’s lengthening, and next comes spring.

Grandeur Peak Area List
At 09:18 MST, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie (v)
2. House Finch**
3. American Robin
4. Rock Pigeon*
5. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
6. Northern Flicker (v)
7. Dark-eyed Junco
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Golden Eagle

Elsewhere

10. Song Sparrow (v)
11. House Sparrow (v)

Mammals

Mule Deer

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

Twoness

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022

Yet another in a series of like mornings. About the same number of bird species, but only one—Dark-eyed Junco—posed for photos. A couple deer posed for photos, but no other mammals around (excepting another human and dog we passed).

I don’t mind quiet hikes. My outward-focused mind has fewer interruptions, which lets me achieve a state of near oneness with my surroundings.

(Well, near twoness, counting my partner, Captain Jack.)

Grandeur Peak Area List
At 09:16 MST, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. House Finch**
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
3. Dark-eyed Junco
4. Rock Pigeon*
5. European Starling
6. Black-capped Chickadee
7. Black-billed Magpie
8. Townsend’s Solitaire (v)

Elsewhere

9. Northern Flicker
10. House Sparrow (v)

Mammals

Mule Deer

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

Same Bird

Monday, January 17th, 2022
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 17 January 2021.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay.

The highlight of this morning’s hike with dog—which unfolded very much like the past three or four or five mornings’—happened as we were hiking up the little wooded gully trail, when I heard the voice of a raven in flight. I never caught sight of the bird through the webs and tangles of branches above us, but I did hear it call again a bit later. Also in flight, but returning.

I feel sure it was the same bird.

Grandeur Peak Area List
At 09:18 MST, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. House Finch (v)
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
3. Dark-eyed Junco
4. Rock Pigeon*
5. Black-capped Chickadee
6. Black-billed Magpie
7. Common Raven (v)
8. Northern Flicker (v)

Elsewhere

9. Song Sparrow (v)

Mammals

Mountain Coyote (v)
Red Squirrel (v)
Mule Deer

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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