Chilly, breezy morning. Sweatshirt weather again. But within a few minutes of beginning my hike with dog, I could tell it was gonna be a big day.
Bird after bird after bird. Species after species. A pair of Western Tanagers, an Olive-sided Warbler with a yellow jacket in its beak, two sparrow species, two warblers, three hummingbirds. I took nearly 900 photos. (Took a while to winnow them down to a couple hundred or so.)
And for the first time I heard the sweet calls of the wren—whose photo was the best of the bunch, I decided.
From four species Tuesday to 22 this morning. A fun day for sure.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:17 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
On this slightly cloudy, breezy morning’s hike with my dog Jack, we encountered a little falcon called American Kestrel. I encountered the usual birds we encounter on these beloved hikes of ours. And near the end of our hike, I spied a lovely brown bird called Vesper Sparrow.
Most folks seem enthralled with bright-colored, fancy birds—like the ostentatious males of many species. I’ve come to love the subtler visual beauty of the less flashy birds. When I got a look at this Vesper Sparrow through my camera, I whispered aloud, “So beautiful.”
Great Basin Gopher Snake.
This morning we also encountered my first snake in my year-plus in Utah: a Great Basin Gopher Snake. It was kinda beautiful, too.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:56 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
OK, so here’s what happened. I rose early, as usual at this time of year, but since Jack and I have Boone here this weekend, and I didn’t feel like birding with two dogs, I left them home and came out to Beech Hill by myself. The angling sun shone brilliantly on the landscape—until right as I got out of my pickup in the Rockville Street parking lot. Clouds had moved over about half the sky. The half with the sun in it.
Veery.
I spent a while cursing the clouds for the dim light they left me with, bird photos being (apparently) the main idea of my spring hikes up there. I managed a couple dim shots—catbird, chestnut-sided warbler—but that was about it. All the way up to the fields, where I stopped to stalk a singing yellow warbler. And as I stood still on the trail, I caught sight of something hopping along in my peripheral vision and turned slowly to see a veery coming up behind me. And I got the best portrait to date of that typically very shy species. Sweet.
Feeling a little better, I crept alongside the fields as a mallard flew over, then four cormorants. I spotted an unusual sparrow that chattered a little before flitting away—a vesper sparrow, I’m pretty sure. And I got some good looks at chasing, mating, nesting yellow warblers.
Then coming up the little wooded stretch below the summit, the sky cleared again finally—and I heard it: the four- and five-note raspy call of a tanager.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I’d been teased by a friend who asked how come I hadn’t yet photographed a scarlet tanager this year. I had to get a picture of that bird. So I crashed off trail, over last falls leaves and between this springs fresh green foliage. I followed the tanager’s voice. From past experience, I knew it would be perched high in the canopy and hidden by the new-leafed trees and not moving around much. It’s rather amazing, really, that such a vivid red bird can stay so hidden. But after two or three minutes, I spotted it. Angled around below here and there working to get a good view. Finally got a photo or two—and even a short video. Sweet.
Eastern kingbird.
Continued on over the hill and down the open side in the bright morning sun. Plenty of birds about, a couple other OK photos. Then coming back up, I noticed a couple of big flycatcher-looking birds perched on weed tips. Right away I knew they were kingbirds—four or five of them, scattered about the slope. One fluttered over to a trailside post and just sat there as I walked slowly toward it. I got maybe fifteen or twenty feet away before it flew. Meaning I got a lot of photos. First-of-year tanager, first-of-year kingbird.
And on the way home I saw a Cooper’s hawk perched on a telephone line. Sweet.
Returned with the dogs in afternoon and hiked the open slope. Added a merlin to the list—it zipped by low and fast as I talked to a friend I’d met on the trail. And that’s pretty much what happened.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 6:30 a.m., I hiked all trails; beginning at 2:45, I hiked the open trail.
