Headed to the trailhead a bit earlier this morning, considering the temp was eventually supposed to reach 90° (F) today. Cool in the shade, warm in the sun. (No clouds that I could see.) Despite this dry, dry landscape, there are birds to be seen.
E.g., a female Black-headed Grosbeak. A hard-to-spy Virginia Warbler. A few gnatcatchers and Mourning Doves. Also saw a snake of some kind (garter snake? racer?), an Eight-spotted Skimmer, and a Rock Squirrel.
Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be about 95°.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:11 a.m. (8:11 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon. We hiked in morning under a cloudless sky, dog and I, and the sun warmed us up nicely. Few other humans or dogs, but quite a few good birds—e.g., a female Western Tanager.
But most noteworthy might’ve been three raptors: one of the resident Cooper’s Hawks, a pair of Golden Eagles perched high on the ridge (first eagles in a while), and, on our return, a lone soaring Red-Tailed Hawk.
(Lots of little hummingbirds, too.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:28 a.m. (8:28 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Of course birds aren’t the only animals I see on my daily hikes with dog. With startling regularity, I also see a number of mammals (and, in warmer weather, a couple reptiles). One mammal I’ve seen pretty often lately is the Mountain Cottontail.
I can’t remember when I saw my first exactly—last spring sometime?—but I’ve discovered they hang out in the little rocky pit near the overlook at the top of the switch back above the trailhead. Birds like the are also (not least because of the invasive-yet-fragrant-and-fruitful Russian olive trees), Rock Wrens and such. Also the Long-tailed Weasel I saw the other day.
So our first stop is this rocky cavity (perhaps an old quarry?). And even with the colder temps and recent snow, I’ve seen cottontails every few days—the past two days in fact.
Otherwise, today, I saw a very distant eagle and a bunch of the usual suspect. Kinda partial to the wild buns, though.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:13 a.m. (MST), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. House Finch* 2. Black-capped Chickadee 3. Spotted Towhee 4. Lesser Goldfinch 5. Black-billed Magpie* 6. Northern Flicker 7. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 8. Golden Eagle 9. Dark-eyed Junco 10. American Robin
