Exciting to have spotted another lifer on the mountainside today—but that wasn’t the most exciting moment on my morning hike with Jack.

The most exciting moment came as we were stalking an unfamiliar bird call up ahead when a hummingbird rose out of nowhere and let out a sort of frantic, sustained, high-pitched trill. A male Black-chinned Hummingbird (first male I’ve seen here) delivering a clear message to dog and me and/or other hummers in the neighborhood.

Within a second or two, I heard, from behind me, another trill—this one brigher, higher, faster, and also sustained. Turned and saw a (male also) Broad-winged Hummingbird hovering about twenty feet up, calling urgently.

Got no photo, got no great looks even, but the very fact of these two tiny birds checking us out (and delivering their thoughts to any critter within earshot) seemed to me nothing shy of miraculous.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a Utah mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie
2. House Sparrow
3. House Finch
4. Eurasian Collared Dove
5. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
6. Mourning Dove
7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
10. Spotted Towhee
11. Black-chinned Hummingbird
12. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
13. Lazuli Bunting
14. Brewer’s Sparrow
15. California Quail

v = Voice only
‡ Life-list bird