We’ve had a little bad air lately. Some days particulates collect in the basin, and a haze rises. Air alerts are routine (mostly for those with compromised health). This was the second or third such hazy morning in a row. We’re lucky, dog and I, that our hike happens mostly above the haze.
Not a lot of species this warm summer morning, but pretty good numbers. Best bird was a grosbeak—and best sighting was a young Mule Deer buck, following an ascent we’d just taken not five minutes before.
I dig the randomness of it all.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 6:30 a.m. (7:30 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
2. Lazuli Bunting
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. American Robin* (v)
5. House Finch**
6. Black-chinned Hummingbird*
7. Mourning Dove
8. Black-headed Grosbeak
9. Spotted Towhee
10. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Elsewhere
11. Black-billed Magpie
12. Eurasian collared-dove
Mammals
Mule Deer
Rock Squirrel
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
