Good walk with dog this morning. Cooler and drier than yesterday’s muggy hike. A few more species, still not much vocalizing, adults keeping track of juvies. And still big flocks of Rock Pigeons circling above the foothills.

I think a lot about the local pigeons. I wonder when and why they flock, why the flocks vanish, why they return. From what I’ve observed, they tend to stick around the neighborhood (unsurprisingly), where they hang out in small groups in fall and winter. Come spring, they must start to pair off, because they more or less disappear—or appear much more rarely, and usually in pairs. Then, after the youngsters fledge, they gang up again and flutter around the slopes together looking for food. Which they tend to find somewhere amid the myrtle spurge.

Maybe I’m wrong, dunno. Just don’t call them “invasive.”

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 6:48 a.m. (7:48 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. House Finch*
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
3. Lazuli Bunting
4. American Robin
5. Black-capped Chickadee
6. Black-chinned Hummingbird*
5. Mourning Dove
7. Rock Pigeon*
8. Black-headed Grosbeak (v)
10. Spotted Towhee
11. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
12. Chipping Sparrow
13. Cooper’s Hawk (v)
14. Northern Flicker (v)
15. Black-throated Gray Warbler
16. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)

Elsewhere

17. Eurasian Collared-dove
18. House Sparrow (v)
19. Red-tailed Hawk

Mammals

Rock Squirrel

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