Nearly every day for the past week or two, I’ve had a standing a.m. date with a female Downy Woodpecker. She likes to frequent the scorched scrub oaks in and around the burnt patch—the acre or so near the high point of last summer’s little wildfire.
Usually (like this nippy, fresh-snow morning), dog and I will slow and get quiet as we approach this area, and I’ll listen for her gentle tapping. And there it is. And I follow it. And I see her, and take per photo.
I really kind of have a crush on her. (So grateful for my hearing.)
Today also had three finches, two corvids, three sparrows, and a Cooper’s Hawk. Every day’s a different day—each and every one.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:12 a.m. (MST), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-billed Magpie**
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. Dark-eyed Junco
4. Pine Siskin (v)
5. Northern Flicker
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
7. House Finch*
8. Spotted Towhee*
9. Downy Woodpecker
10. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
11. Song Sparrow (v)
12. Sharp-shinned Hawk
Elsewhere
13. Rock Pigeon
14. European Starling
Mammals
Mountain Cottontail
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, downy woodpecker, European starling, house finch, lesser goldfinch, mountain cottontail, northern flicker, pine siskin, rock pigeon, sharp-shinned hawk, song sparrow, spotted towhee, Woodhouse’s scrub jay
