Around the solstices, the changes in the lengths of days slows, like the far points of a swinging pendulum. At the equinoxes, the photoperiod increases or lessens swiftly. These early summer days can seem much the same, one after another—but for birds, the opposite is the case.
Now’s the time of nestlings and fledglings and hiding and growing and putting on weight and storing energy. Migration’s not all that far away.
Today, dog and I got scolded by multiple species (most of which were out of sight) for getting too near the young ’uns. Buntings, chippies, vireos, hummingbirds—and gnatcatchers. Especially gnatcatchers.
At the end of our hike, we surprised a mama quail with itty bitty babies that’d hatched not many hours before—iny little peeping that things could scramble away in the understory.
A lot of things happen in a hurry during this slow solstitical turn.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Lazuli Bunting (female), collecting dog hairs at the Pipeline Overlook.
Lazuli Buntings are small, vocal, attractive, birds—and the most common species in my patch. You’d think I’d begin to take them for granted. But no.
Lazuli Bunting (male).
During this morning’s long, high hike with Captain Jack, we encountered a bunch of lazulis. Singing males (as usual), and furtive females. Upon topping the switchback that leads to the terminus of the Pipeline Trail we accidentally snuck up on a pair at the overlook. The female was hopping about in the rocks, plucking up dog hairs—lots and lots of dogs accompany their humans up there—shooing away the randy male who flitted nearby.
I counted twenty-three buntings on today’s two-and-a-half hour, three-and-a-third mile excursion. I’m sure I missed a few.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked about 1,200 feet up a mountain.
Pretty chilly in the mountain shade this morning of the first day of summer. But the sun warmed things quickly. Dog and I hiked our favorite circuit, about !,200 feet up along the ridge overlooking Millcreek Canyon.
Up on that ridge, I spied a solitary Golden Eagle circling lazily in the blue. Somehow a fitting sign of the solstice.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked some 1,200 feet up a mountain.
