Seems everywhere you look these days, you’ll see a bird carrying a tasty morsel. That is, assuming you’re paying attention to birds.
They’re laying low these days, what with all the begging fledglings, still learning to fend for themselves. It won’t take long, but in the meantime, there are bugs to catch.
Notably, on this morning’s hike with dog, we spied numerous buntings trying to keep track of their youngsters. Also towhees (which have gone even quieter). Back home this afternoon, I stopped to watch a female house sparrow methodically tear the legs off a grasshopper on the street out front. Even the wild hummingbirds seem to be catching tiny flies in the shade, it seems.
(That’s one of several reasons I love insects: bird food.)
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:01 a.m. (8:01 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. House Finch*
2. American Robin*
3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
4. Lazuli Bunting
5. Mourning Dove
6. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
7. Black-chinned Hummingbird*
8. Black-billed Magpie
9. Eurasian Collared-dove
10. Spotted Towhee
11. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
12. Cooper’s Hawk (v)
13. Black-capped Chickadee (v)
14. Rock Pigeon*
Elsewhere
15. House Sparrow
Mammals
Rock Squirrel
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American robin, blac-capped chickadee, black-billed magpie, black-chinned hummingbird, blue-gray gnatcatcher, cooper's hawk, Eurasian collared dove, house finch, house sparrow, lazuli bunting, lesser goldfinch, mourning dove, rock pigeon, rock squirrel, spotted towhee, Woodhouse’s scrub jay
