Good walk with dog this morning. Cooler and drier than yesterday’s muggy hike. A few more species, still not much vocalizing, adults keeping track of juvies. And still big flocks of Rock Pigeons circling above the foothills.
I think a lot about the local pigeons. I wonder when and why they flock, why the flocks vanish, why they return. From what I’ve observed, they tend to stick around the neighborhood (unsurprisingly), where they hang out in small groups in fall and winter. Come spring, they must start to pair off, because they more or less disappear—or appear much more rarely, and usually in pairs. Then, after the youngsters fledge, they gang up again and flutter around the slopes together looking for food. Which they tend to find somewhere amid the myrtle spurge.
Maybe I’m wrong, dunno. Just don’t call them “invasive.”
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:48 a.m. (7:48 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Enjoyed yet another hike with dog this morning—albeit the most muggy one I can recall. Last evening’s rain had soaked in and/or dried up overnight, but the atmosphere held traces of the rare, welcome wetness. Didn’t at all mind the sweat it drew from my pores.
Not a lot of bird action—mostly because fewer birds are vocalizing. Yep, it’s that time of year: having left the nest, youngsters must be fed and kept track of; hawks (and dogs and humans) are about; the territorial imperative is less important than simply finding food and surviving. No need to make a lot of noise.
I heard only three singing towhees, and maybe four singing buntings. (Compare that to spring!) Counted only six of each species. Before long, both will have abandoned their songs entirely, resorting only to subtle chips and chatters.
Still, the singers will be back next April and May.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:55 a.m. (7:55 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
When Jack and I hit the trail this morning, I saw faint curtains streaming from the clouds in the sky and thought, rain. And maybe a little rain did fall out there in the basin under those faint curtains, but none fell on me and my dog.
We had a good hike, though—17 species, most in a while. Got a glimpse of a tanager and three Black-throated Gray Warblers and another coop. Back home in hot, sunny afternoon, a monarch in the garden.
My first rainless experience. Kinda makes you think and wish and hope.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:55 a.m. (7:55 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
