My morning hike with dog began quietly. And by that I mean there were surprisingly few bird sounds. No singing buntings or towhees until well into our hike. Notably quieter than yesterday—or any recent day.
I knew why: young ’uns.
After the sun climbed above the mountains, birds began to vocalize a bit—but not a lot. Yet still I spied (and heard) fledglings and juvenile birds all over the place. (Notable were my first young towhees of the season.)
It’s just that juvie time of year.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:45 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-headed Grosbeak 2. American Robin* 3. House Finch* 4. Lazuli Bunting 5. Black-chinned Hummingbird 6. Spotted Towhee 7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 8. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay* (v) 9. Black-capped Chickadee 10. Pine Siskin 11. Mourning Dove 12. Rock Pigeon* 13. Lesser Goldfinch** (v) 14. Black-billed Magpie*
Elsewhere
15. Eurasian collared Dove 16. California Quail 17. European Starling 18. House Sparrow
Mammals
Rock Squirrel (v)
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
Another cloudless day, with coolish temperatures early and hot temperatures late. (It’s a dry heat.) Lovely hike with dog—many bird species.
Northern Flicker (female).
Lots of fledglings out there. Chippies and buntings and (at home) California Quail chicks. The funnest occurrence was when, as we were hiking a high deer trail, a Cooper’s Hawk abruptly entered the picture—zipping downhill, low above the slope, into a sagebrushy area maybe 150 yards away.
As we hurried down in that direction, my GoPro’s battery ran out, so I replaced that thinking I’d missed my chance—but no. The red-eyed bird posed for a bunch of photos and a video. Despite a general upset in the little bird population. I could find no evidence that it’d made a kill.
(Later, I got a lovely photo of a lovely female flicker with tiny black hearts on its breast.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Lovely cool hike this morning. Managed to tally eighteen species—including a juvie Red-tailed Hawk being mobbed by robins, finches, and at least one oriole.
Then, this afternoon, dog and I had a meet-up with visiting friends at Sugar House Park, a nice green area in town with a creek and pond. Fun conversation amid a whole bunch of wild birds: geese, ducks, hummingbirds—and a plethora of Barn Swallows tending nests in the corners of the pavilion roof.
Could hardly get enough of the swallows.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Bird Report is an intermittent record of what's outside my window in Rockport, Maine, USA (44°08'N latitude, 69°06'W longitude), and vicinity. —Brian Willson
