9 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘canyon wren’

Canyon Wren

Monday, February 1st, 2021
Canyon Wren, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 01 February 2021.
Canyon Wren.

Warm morning—about freezing when we hit the trail, and well above on our (muddy) return. Between times, I spotted mostly the usual suspects—and one unusual suspect. I’m referring to the Canyon Wren that popped up in the little rock-pile cave in the old Monarch Quarry.

We followed our usual route, moseyed over to the bluff, and on returning along the quarry’s edge I heard the familiar little whank! call of the wren. And I froze. And Jack-my-dog froze at my side. And I said aloud, as we waited, “It might be a little while.”

But it wasn’t long before the second whank! came from within the rocks, and the wren emerged, calling, and poked around a bit before disappearing back into the shadows.

The rest of the hike was good, too, but that wren will stick with me.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:09 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. House Finch*
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. Rock Pigeon*
5. Canyon Wren
6. Dark-eyed Junco
7. Spotted Towhee
8. Black-billed Magpie* (v)
9. American Robin* (v)

Elsewhere

10. Eurasian Collared-dove
11. Northern Flicker
12. House Sparrow
13. European Starling
14. Lesser Goldfinch (v)

Mammals

Red Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

A Very Fine Day

Sunday, November 22nd, 2020
Sharp-shinned Hawk, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 22 November 2020.
Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Canyon Wren, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 22 November 2020.
Canyon Wren.

A calm, nearly cloudless morning with chillier temps (20s (F)) than yesterday—and a bunch of nice surprises to discover. The first being a Canyon Wren in the rocky cavity up near the bluff. I heard it first, remembered the call from early spring, and managed even to spy the little energetic bird.

Soon after that sighting, I decided we should climb up to the ridge where the cairn stands—where I’d seen (from a distance) that it’d partly fallen in on account of (I assume) a few very windy days. It’d been a couple-three months, at least. Past time.

And it was a grand climb, a lovely view. I repaired the cairn (more or less), and dog and I ascended a couple hundred feet above it, sat a spell, then came back down (during which descent I heard—then spotted—a couple Chukars) and finally hiked a stretch of our usual trail, for good measure.

Good measure turned out to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, perched low in the scrub not far away, casting about for voles or juncos until a trail runner jogged by.

All in all a very fine day.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:20 a.m. (MST), I hiked some 1,200 feet up a mountain.

1. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
2. Pine Siskin (v)
3. House Finch* (v)
4. Spotted Towhee
5. American Robin** (v)
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
7. Canyon Wren
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Chukar
10. Dark-eyed Junco
11. Sharp-shinned Hawk
12. Northern Flicker (v)
13. Black-billed Magpie* (v)

Elsewhere

14. American Kestrel

Mammals

Red Squirrel (v)

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

Vocalizations

Friday, June 5th, 2020
Black-throated Gray Warbler, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 05 June 2020.
Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Slept late this morning. We didn’t make it to the trailhead until the sun had long cleared the ridge. Warm, not too breezy. Didn’t know what to expect.

Not many birds on my list, but what showed up were vocal. The usual buntings and towhees and grosbeaks, along with chippies, finches, gnatcatchers. No magpies, which was odd. And the cherry on top was a cooperative Black-throated Gray Warbler (singing an interesting alternate song that—astonishingly—didn’t fool me).

After two long hikes, today’s was a quick one. Rain forecast for the weekend. Wind and rain. Scattered thunderstorms. Should be interesting. Looking forward to it.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Lazuli Bunting
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
3. Black-headed Grosbeak
4. Black-chinned Hummingbird
5. Pine Siskin
6. Canyon Wren? (v)
7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
8. Spotted Towhee
9. Lesser Goldfinch
10. House Finch* (v)
11. Black-capped Chickadee (v)
12. Black-throated Gray Warbler
13. Chipping Sparrow (v)
14. Warbling Vireo
15. Song Sparrow* (v)
16. California Quail** (v)

Elsewhere

17. Eurasian Collared Dove
18. American Robin
19. European Starling
20. Mourning Dove
21. Song Sparrow
22. Black-billed Magpie

Mammals

None

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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