It was hard for me to choose a high point of this morning’s short, extraordinarily sweet hike with dog. We were late to hit the trail, and left early because of errands that needed running. But, dang, did the birds put on a show.

Several first-of-year birds, a “lifer” subspecies—and at one point early on, from where I stood, I took decent photos of four bird species.

I was most excited, however, to solve a puzzle that’d been plaguing me for a week or more: what bird was making that faint, cricket-sounding call as it flew swiftly, intermittently, and (apparently) invisibly above us on our morning hikes? I’d been referring to it as “that cricket bird,” thinking the sound a vocalization. But this morning I finally caught sight of the source of the sound—a tiny hummingbird zipping away overhead.

Ah-ha! But which?

For some reason, I decided aloud that it must be a broad-winged hummer. And when I finally got home and looked it up, I was right! In fact, the Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website describes this wing-trill as having “a cricketlike quality to it.” Puzzle solved! (And what a relief!)

(Although I’ve marked today’s as a “first-of-year” sighting, the hummer has been hanging around for a week or more.)

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Spotted Towhee**
2. Song Sparrow* (v)
3. American Robin*
4. Black-billed Magpie*
5. Black-capped Chickadee**
6. House Finch**
7. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
8. Northern Flicker**
9. Black-throated Gray Warbler
10. Lazuli Bunting
11. Northern Mockingbird†
12. Chipping Sparrow
13. Pine Siskin (v)
14. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
15. Sharp-shinned Hawk
16. Hermit Thrush†
17. Broad-tailed Hummingbird†
18. Virginia’s Warbler†‡
19. Chukar (v)
20. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
21. California Quail
22.Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s subspecies)†‡
23. Tree Swallow†

Elsewhere

24. Eurasian Collared Dove
25. House Sparrow
26. Rock Pigeon
27. Lesser Goldfinch (v)

Mammals

None

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year bird
‡Lifer