It wasn’t a lot, but it was rain. The morning started off with a trace of drizzle, then the drizzle abated, and the weather radar showed a rain-free channel for a while—but that rain would likely follow. And afternoon thundershowers were possible.
An overcast filled much of the sky, and I could feel humidity for the first time in a while. Quite a few birds flitted about, and my hike with dog generally gave me the usual thrills. But the most thrilling moment came on our return, when I’d just seen a gang of magpies on the bluff, and the drizzle returned. I heard it before I felt it, but there it was. And then a sparrow popped up and posed.
The drizzle didn’t last very long, but it doesn’t take much to trigger a spark of hope these days.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:16 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Within ten or fifteen minutes of hitting the trail this morning, I could tell last night brought fair migration winds. I say “fair” winds because of the good variety of species I spied early—Western Tanager, Western Wood-pewee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a few other species-in-a-hurry that I couldn’t ID. Has me psyched about the days to come.
Western Wood-pewee.
But the sweetest thing about my hike with dog this cool morning was the company of Black-capped Chickadees. What with the recent spate of western fires, a hurricane making landfall, and other dramatic climate events, it’d be easy to fall into a funk. But there they are, the chickadees, their optimistic-sounding voices as they check in with each other—voices so matter-of-fact and unworried that they attract other little silent species moving through the foliage.
One even flew within inches of my head today. I thought it might land on my hat, but it didn’t. Maybe someday.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:11 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-billed Magpie* (v) 2. House Finch* 3. Black-capped Chickadee** 4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 5. Black-chinned Hummingbird 6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7. Spotted Towhee 8. Northern Flicker** 9. Western Tanager 10. Downy Woodpecker 11. Sparrow (sp) 12. Western Wood-pewee 13. American Robin 14. Yellow-rumped Warbler 15. Lesser Goldfinch* 16. Broad-tailed Hummingbird 17. House Wren
Elsewhere
18. California Quail
Mammals
Red Squirrel (v)
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
I happened to encounter the word friluftsliv this morning soon after my hike with dog. A Norwegian concept, or practice, or custom—meaning something like “open-air living.” But it means more. It means spending time each day surrounded by, contemplating, and paying attention to Nature.
It’s what I’ve done for decades. Huge part of my life. Good living, too.
Hike-wise, another quiet one. But the voices of chickadees made me feel optimistic despite the crazy fires and winds and hurricanes and politics and disease. Plus, I came across my first migrating Yellow-rumped Warbler moving through.
Worth it—the time, the effort, the energy. Worth it always.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:13 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
