When dog and I hit the trailhead, we found ourselves in nippy (42° F) conditions. Evidence of sprinkles overnight, mostly clouds overhead. Fewer birds than yesterday: only seven spp.—until we’d made it up the gully to the deer trail, where a little batch of yellow-rumps and kinglets appeared in a juniper tree.
But the highlight of the hike happened on our return trip, when a solitary Lincoln’s Sparrow popped up on a wild rose bush at the old Monarch Quarry. Can’t remember the last time I saw one of those handsome birds.
Grandeur Peak Area List
At 7:15 a.m. (8:15 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
2. House Finch**
3. Song Sparrow
4. Northern Flicker
5. Rock Pigeon
6. Black-capped Chickadee
7. Rock Wren
8. Yellow-rumped Warbler
9. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
10. American Robin
11. Lesser Goldfinch*
12. Lincoln’s Sparrow
13. Spotted Towhee (v)
Elsewhere
14. House Sparrow (v)
15. California Quail
16. Eurasian Collared-dove
Mammals
Red Squirrel
Rock Squirrel
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
