On something of a lark, we did the ridge hike this morning, dog and I. a couple more inches of snow had fallen overnight, but the ascent up the switchback proved easy enough. However, it appeared only one other hiker had topped the ridge—and the snow was deep up there.
So it took us a good while. But the scenery was lovely, and we a had the company of deer. Not many birds—and one of them I heard uttering a call that I did not recognize. Got only a distant view of it flying away.
The rest of the day was rather a lazy one for dog and me
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:42 a.m. (MST), some 1,200 hundred feet up a mountain.
Any day when I get to stalk a Townsend’s Solitaire I count as a good day. It happened this morning (for about the fifth or sixth time) in little wooded Coyote Canyon (where it’s nearly always happened), which dog and I ascended for the first time since the last big snow. Followed the deer tracks up there heard the bird’s faint but lovely song winter song—almost as if its practicing for spring—and it didn’t take a lot of looking to spot it.
Pretty sure it’s the same bird I’ve stalked at least a couple-three times before.
Elsewhere deer—including a deer hiding in scrub oak very near the trail, which, when I observed it, had a magpie walking along its back. Guessing it was after mites or ticks or something.
Also saw a Cooper’s Hawk. All in all, a real successful one.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 9:02 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
