On this slightly cloudy, breezy morning’s hike with my dog Jack, we encountered a little falcon called American Kestrel. I encountered the usual birds we encounter on these beloved hikes of ours. And near the end of our hike, I spied a lovely brown bird called Vesper Sparrow.
Most folks seem enthralled with bright-colored, fancy birds—like the ostentatious males of many species. I’ve come to love the subtler visual beauty of the less flashy birds. When I got a look at this Vesper Sparrow through my camera, I whispered aloud, “So beautiful.”
This morning we also encountered my first snake in my year-plus in Utah: a Great Basin Gopher Snake. It was kinda beautiful, too.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:56 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. House Finch*
2. Mourning Dove*
3. Spotted Towhee
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
5. American Kestrel
6. Rock Pigeon*
7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
8. Black-billed Magpie*
9. Lesser Goldfinch*
10. Black-chinned Hummingbird
11. Broad-tailed Hummingbird*
12. Black-capped Chickadee**
13. Red-breasted Nuthatch
14. Western Tanager
15. Vesper Sparrow
Elsewhere
16. Eurasian Collared Dove
17. California Quail
18. House Sparrow (v)
Reptiles
Great Basin Gopher Snake
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American kestrel, black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, black-chinned hummingbird, blue-gray gnatcatcher, broad-tailed hummingbird, California quail, Eurasian collared dove, great basin gopher snake, house finch, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, mourning dove, red-breasted nuthatch, rock pigeon, spotted towhee, vesper sparrow, western tanager, Woodhouse’s scrub jay
