Woke up this morning to a good bit more snow. I’d say maybe nine inches of new stuff down in the neighborhood—which translated into about a foot up the switchback. So, for the first time since I moved here, I broke out my snowshoes.
It was a good plan. As usual, Jack let me break the trail (although, to my surprise, we followed someone else’s tracks up—someone who wasn’t wearing snowshoes). Still snowing lightly for much of our relatively short hike. Which actually included several bird species. I even got a look at all but two (finch and jay). And a Northern Flicker posed for photos.
Not a long hike, but a considerable expenditure of energy, much of which came as I worked to dig my truck out of the snow-plow pile a rammed into while parking it. Gotta say, though, it felt pretty dang good.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:09 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
1. House Finch* (v)
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay (v)
3. Spotted Towhee
4. Northern Flicker
5. Black-billed Magpie*
6. Black-capped Chickadee
7. Rock Pigeon*
Elsewhere
8. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
Tags: black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, house finch, lesser goldfinch, northern flicker, rock pigeon, spotted towhee, Woodhouse’s scrub-jay
