About two-thirds of the way through my lovely hike with dog this morning, as we made our way along a familiar deer trail up among the junipers, I heard the distinctive kip-kip-kip-kip-kip! of a Sharp-shinned Hawk. We stopped. I didn’t see the hawk, and I couldn’t even tell how far away it was.
But I’ve learned to look for other birds who might indicate where we might find the little hawk. (I’m imagining a person moving silently to a closed door and pointing urgently with eyes wide.) Nearly always a hummingbird will head to where the danger is. So will scrub-jays if they’re about (they were). They converged around a juniper, and out popped the hawk—who flew across the trail and dove into another juniper.
Two jays, a hummingbird, and a Spotted Towhee ended up there, too. The hawk hunkered down deep in the tree—but I asked Jack to stay and snuck around to where the sun was behind me. Took about a minute, but I finally managed to contort myself in such a way that I could grab a quick photo of an interesting moment in time.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:04 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Mourning Dove
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
3. Black-chinned Hummingbird
4. House Finch**
5. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
6. Spotted Towhee
7. Barn Swallow
8. Red-breasted Nuthatch
9. Downy Woodpecker
10. Broad-tailed Hummingbird*
11. Black-capped Chickadee
12. Lesser Goldfinch**
13. Virginia’s Warbler
14. Sharp-shinned Hawk
15. Black-billed Magpie*
Elsewhere
16. Eurasian Collared Dove (v)
17. California Quail
Mammals
Rock Squirrel
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: barn swallow, black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, black-chinned hummingbird, blue-gray gnatcatcher, broad-tailed hummingbird, California quail, downy woodpecker, Eurasian collared dove, house finch, lesser goldfinch, mourning dove, red-breasted nuthatch, rock squirrel, sharp-shinned hawk, spotted towhee, Virginia’s warbler, Woodhouse’s scrub jay
