Last night’s front brought a tiny bit of rain and cooled things off considerably. However, the sun being bright this morning, dog and I embarked on a ridge hike.
Along the way—in the lower elevations, where the scrub oak grows—we passed many Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. I love this little birds. They flit, they flash their tails, the travel in betrothed pairs (or seem to), the have wee, antic, plaintive voices. Last year I knew of a nest along the trail. Hoping for another this year.
Otherwise, although no first-of-years, a bunch of species on this morning’s list. Still expecting something of an influx when the warmth takes hold again.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:31 a.m. (8:31 MDT), I hiked about 1,200 feet up a mountain.
Heard a first-of-year warbler song this lovely warm morning. The bird was perched in the tip of a scrub oak (as were a few nearby Lazuli Buntings), and it sounded something like a Nashville Warbler—and sure enough, it turned out to be a Virginia’s. [My first Virginia’s Warbler here I mis-ID’d as a NAWA.]
But that wasn’t the only first-of-year bird this morn: I also heard a pair of Warbling Vireos having a sing-off up the gully where there was a nest last year.
A wondrous time of year.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:19 a.m. (8:19 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Fun hike this morning. A bit clearer, a bit warmer. Quite a few species to start, but toward the end of it, I began to think I wouldn’t have a first-of-year bird for a change. I was wrong.
I heard the soft warbled notes from a newly leafed-out maple tree. I knew it was the voice of a Black-headed Grosbeak. I crept with Jack off the trail and approached the tree. As I got near, I discovered that the bird was in fact singing from the other side of the maple, but as I rounded the tree, it flew.
We crept up a slope, dog and me, and I looked in the direction of where the bird had flown—and spied it quite a distance away.
Tomorrow’s temperature is supposed to top 80° (F).
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:34 a.m. (8:34 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
