Some hikes are plain, some are fancy. Some have surprises—and some of those are pleasant surprises, some not so much. (Happy to say most are the former kind).
Today’s surprise came right off the bat: no sooner had Captain Jack and I hopped out of the pickup at the trailhead than a little gang of orioles appeared in the foliage up in front of us. First heard their alarm calls, the spied a female. I suspect a little family moving through.
Lots of those—little families moving through. Robins, buntings, towhees, vireos, chippies. It’s that happy time of year.
(Another little surprise happened in the same place right at the end of things: not an oriole—a tanager.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Did the ridge circuit with dog this morning, a three-and-a-half mile hike up Coyote Canyon (so-called) to a summit above the terminus of the Pipeline Trail. Warm, sunny, breezy, dry.
Not nearly as many individual birds as yesterday, nor as many species. But all around it was a lovely Independence Day hike for both Captain Jack and me.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked 1,200 feet or so up a mountain.
They’re everywhere. Singing bright songs from high perches, zipping back and forth overhead, occasionally chasing each other. Making their presence known—or (in the case of females) usually lurking just out of sight.
I’m talking about Lazuli Buntings.
The species was my first lifer after I moved to Salt Lake City last August. I happened to see a male feeding a fledgling. There was no singing going on. For the most part, the birds were laying low. I thought they might be a little uncommon, maybe even rare jewels.
Turns out they’re abundant jewels—at least in these parts. And I gotta say I’m not too unhappy about it.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:45 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
