17 February 2025

Mud Season

Sunday, March 14th, 2021
California Quail, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 14 March 2021.
California Quail.
Juniper TItmouse, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 14 March 2021.
Juniper TItmouse.

The mud on the trail this morning made a squishy sound beneath my boots, but I didn’t mind. I kind of liked it, the idea that this—here, now, the melting snow of late winter—is where much of the water comes from here in the high desert. Also, I saw a lot of birds.

Saw a gang of Cassin’s Finches and a Cooper’s Hawk right by the trailhead, stalked a Juniper Titmouse until I somehow managed a pic.

The early part of the day was mostly overcast, but in afternoon it got sunny, and I heard the click-click-click! of some quail. Snuck out on the deck and got a photo of a lovely female, perched on a rose bush and sounding that alarm to the rest of her covey.

Less than a week ’til spring.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:57 a.m. (9:57 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Cooper’s Hawk
2. Dark-eyed Junco
3. Cassin’s Finch
4. American Robin** (v)
5. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
7. Rock Pigeon*
8. Spotted Towhee*
9. House Finch** (v)
10. Black-capped Chickadee
11. Juniper Titmouse
12. Song Sparrow* (v)

Elsewhere

13. Eurasian collared-dove (v)
14. California Quail

Mammals

Rock Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

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Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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