Edit (02/21/2022): I’ve been informed that this is without a doubt a Western Screech Owl. A lifer for me!
I’d been angling for a photo of silent chickadees, as dog and I ascended the snowy trail up wooded Coyote Canyon, when the little birds zipped up ahead and began to call and scold. That’s when I noticed a larger bird shoot down through the tangles to my left to a perch. I aimed my camera at it and saw it was a small owl—but I couldn’t focus because of all the leaves and twigs between us. Again and again I tried, to no avail.
Wish I’d thought to grab my binoculars instead, ’cause then I might’ve managed an ID.
Since this was near the place I saw a Northern Pygmy Owl back in November, I assumed that’s what it was. But in looking at the blurry photos later, I couldn’t be sure. Its face seems to resemble a Northern Saw-whet Owl, but at the time (and in the photos), it looks like this bird has a long tail (the mark of a pygmy owl).
Still kind of leaning toward the latter—but I guess I’ll never know.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:57 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. American Robin* (v)
5. Spotted Towhee (v)
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
7. House Finch* (v)
8. Rock Pigeon*
9. Townsend’s Solitaire
10. Black-billed Magpie** (v)
11. Owl (sp?)
12. Northern Flicker (v)
Elsewhere
13. European Starling
14. Eurasian Collared-dove
15. Song Sparrow
Mammals
Mountain Cottontail
Mule Deer
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American robin, black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, Eurasian collared dove, European starling, house finch, lesser goldfinch, mountain cottontail, mule deer, northern flicker, northern pygmy owl, rock pigeon, song sparrow, spotted towhe, Townsend’s solitaire, Woodhouse’s scrub jay
