Temps in the 30s (F) when dog and I hit the shady trail. No clouds above us, a bit of a breeze, clean, sweet-tasting air, and quite a few birds about still.
Against this mid-October backdrop, I encountered the usual fall migration suspects—towhees, juncos, a couple kinglets, one yellow-rump—but not bad numbers. Several popped up for photos.
But I was especially thankful for the chickadee who struck a pose.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:35 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
I haven’t mentioned magpies much lately. They kind of go quiet later in the summer, I guess is one reason. But they’re always around—like crows used to be back in Maine.
Not the same as crows, though. Way too fancy-looking, for one thing. A bit noisier, quicker to freak out. But still you can tell they’re corvids—smart, observant, near to verbal language. Yesterday I spied three or four on the bluff, but they flew as I went to photograph one. (Mostly this was because a hawk showed up unexpectedly.)
Today they were hanging out on the bluff again. And I got a nice photo of one in the process of being noisy.
A lot of folks tend to complain about all the Black-billed Magpies (as humans will do about conspicuous birds generally), but I kind of like ’em.
Lovely nippy hike today. (The temps have begun to dip, as temps will do.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:28 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
A bit warmer this morning, but a favorable northwest-ish wind, and an interesting sky full of clouds. Hardly any birds for the first five minutes, then—pow!
Cooper’s Hawk (imm.).
Most fun for me were two young species, both of which made surprise appearances near the trailhead.
First, I’d thought I heard a sparrow near the little old quarry hole but saw nothing. About a minute later, up popped a young White-crowned Sparrow. Then, soon after that, as I was angling to photograph three magpies, a new bird swept in and perched some forty feet away—a young Cooper’s Hawk.
Loved all the other birds, too, of course.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:28 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-billed Magpie** 2. Northern Flicker* 3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 4. Spotted Towhee 5. Dark-eyed Junco 6. House Finch** 7. American Robin 8. White-crowned Sparrow 9. Cooper’s Hawk 10. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 11. Lesser Goldfinch** (v) 12. Black-capped Chickadee 13. Pine Siskin (v) 14. Mourning Dove 15. Yellow-rumped Warbler (v)
Mammals
Red Squirrel (v)
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
