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.
This morning’s hike took dog and me along our familiar route south along the shoreline trail, up Coyote Canyon (so-called) and back via deer trails up among the junipers. There were a lot of nice surprises.
Up the in the cool shady canyon, I heard the sapsucker-like call of a female Cooper’s Hawk and got a nice look at a randomly appearing female Yellow Warbler. In the junipers, I have a favorite shady spot where I like to pause, look and listen. Warbling Vireos, Black-throated Gray Warbler, chickadees, robins. Returning I spied a tanager and oriole, heard a magpie—even caught sight of a collared dove.
Just about every bird occurs to me as a nice surprise.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Rock Pigeon* 2. Mourning Dove 3. Black-chinned Hummingbird 4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay* 5. Lazuli Bunting 6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7. House Finch** 8. Pine Siskin 9. Spotted Towhee 10. Black-capped Chickadee 11. Lesser Goldfinch 12. Cooper’s Hawk (v) 13. Yellow Warbler 14. Black-throated Gray Warbler 15. Warbling Vireo (v) 16. American Robin 17. Western Tanager 18. Eurasian Collared Dove 19. Black-billed Magpie (v) 20. Bullock’s Oriole
Elsewhere
21. House Sparrow 22. Barn Swallow
Mammals
Mountain Cottontail
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
Western Tanager, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 16 July 2020.
Warbling Vireo.
This cool morning on the trail with dog, I watched a whole bunch of bird families do their thing. Many, many juvies of all sorts—colorful birds, drab birds, high-flying birds, birds scratching around in the undergrowth.
At one point, up in the shade of a juniper, I decided to stop and look and listen. Within a minute, a little family of Warbling Vireos flitted through, and I grabbed some photos. Then chickadees appeared, then finches, then buntings—then I heard a Virginia’s warbler nearby.
“Stop, look, and listen,” I said aloud—perhaps inspired by “stop, drop, and roll”? (Seemed like an inspired birding phrase at the time.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.