
My best bird photo today was my first one: an early shot of the Song Sparrow that lives in the ivy along the western fence of the side yard. The bird wore his feathers puffed up, considering a temperature of about 20° (F). It did not fly as I stood and took photos, just turned its head a bit.
Up the trails were the familiar corvids, towhees, finches—my Downy Woodpecker friend (whose tap-tap-tap I can by some miracle always hear in the burnt patch), and a whole bunch of Spotted Towhees.
The sky was cloudless but the atmosphere contained a few particulates. Still a lovely morning.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:20 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-billed Magpie*
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
4. Spotted Towhee
5. Lesser Goldfinch**
6. House Finch** (v)
7. Downy Woodpecker
8. Juniper Titmouse (v)
9. Dark-eyed Junco*
10. Pine Siskin (v)
Elsewhere
11. Song Sparrow
12. House Sparrow
13. Dove (sp.)
14. European Starling
Mammals
Red Squirrel (v)
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere