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.
Aaand, right on schedule—a toasty warm hike today. It might not have been so warm had Jack and I not slept late, but man and dog had places to go, so we went those places, as always.
The heat might’ve daunted the birds some—that and the job of keeping everyone safe and hidden—because I didn’t encounter many species. Still da bunch of buntings and towhees (as always, I have come to realize). And plenty of finches and hummingbirds and gnatcatchers.
I’m kinda taking a liking to gnatcatchers.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:45 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
