This morning was kinda cool—not only temperature-wise, but birding-wise. E.g., a random Olive-sided Flycatcher appeared out of nowhere and perched at the top of the tallest Russian Olive (no great photo, alas). And a good-sized flock of Lesser Goldfinches showed up out of the (literal) blue.
But most cool wasd my first-ever look at hummingbird parent dealing with hummingbird youngsters. The gully had broad-tails again, but this time I saw more than one—three, in fact. It wasn’t a close look, and I wasn’t exactly positive what was going on, but it sure looked like a busy adult was dealing (not always patiently) with a pair of fledglings. Twitters were uttered, and tailes were flashed. It was some fun.
(Back at the house, the little quail family remains obsessed with the garden out front. Also a fun distraction.)
No rain today. Now crossing my fingers for the weekend.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:57 a.m. (7:57 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Saw three different hummingbird species today. Two were surprises.
The first surprise was a Broad-tailed Hummingbird in little shady Coyote Canyon. I’d heard hummingbird wings zipping around in the foliage but only once or twice got a look at the bird, and they looked like black-chinneds. However, their wing sounds resembled crickets—exactly what I think broad-tails’ wings sound like. I’ve confused the two more than once in that little gully, so I took what I thought was the safe route: black-chinned.
Broad-tailed Hummingbird.
Today I heard the wing-sound and right away spied the little bird, just as a the light revealed a splash of red on its throat: broad-tailed.
Much later, back home, I happened to see a hummingbird zipping about some flowers in the front garden. Snapped a couple pics, which—when I inspected them—revealed this hummer to be a rufous. Surprise, surprise.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 6:56 a.m. (7:56 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Good and bad news this morning. The bad news first: Jack didn’t want to go. He’s had a couple episodes the past few days (stick lodged in throat, finally swallowed, and a missed jump into the truck after a hike, causing a minor fall), and he’s been a little lethargic since, so we have a vet appointment on Monday—although yesterday he was fine on the trails. Still, I figured he could use a day off (first since October 2019).
So although I thought about him the whole way, I ended up doing a ridge hike—a long, slow walk uphill a good ways, then downhill again, all the while observing a whole heap of migrating birds.
