An overcast morning with ominous skies struck me as inviting. And, as often is the case, I found a bird I wasn’t looking for.

That bird was a first-of-year Western Tanager (and my first sighting of a male of the species)—when I happened to be trying to track down a Black-headed Grosbeak with a somewhat odd voice. Which, in retrospect, makes me think the grosbeak was really a tanager.

Later in my hike with dog, I heard two birds warbling at each other from the edge of the juniper barren. Certainly not finches, but what? They were keeping out of sight, singing nearly identical, territorial battle-songs. Finally I caught a glimpse of one through binoculars—some kind of vireo?

“Nah, couldn’t be,” I thought. But hours later I realized one vireo would fit: they were Warbling Vireos. (It’s been a couple decades since I last heard one in Maine—I’d forgotten their song.)

Saw no one on the trail. Only rained a few drops. Our hike went exactly as it was supposed to go.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:45 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. American Robin*
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. House Finch* (v)
4. Lazuli Bunting
5. Black-capped Chickadee**
6. Spotted Towhee
7. California Quail*
8. Pine Siskin (v)
9. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
10. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
11. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
12. Rock Wren
13. Black-headed Grosbeak (v)
14. Western Tanager†
15. Black-chinned Hummingbird
16. Orange-crowned Warbler (v)
17. Chipping Sparrow
18. Black-throated Gray Warbler (v)
19. Warbling Vireo

Elsewhere

20. Song Sparrow
21. Eurasian Collared Dove
22. European Starling

Mammals

Mule Deer

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year