My morning hike with dog was supposed to be a short one (since grocery shopping after was in the cards), but I got waylaid by some interesting birds. And not a few this day.
Hawk in the big olive tree. Pigeon and chickadee and gnatcatcher and warbler and yet another (unidentified) hummer—and sparrows.
(The sparrows brought the thrills this day, especially a young white-crowned.)
Grandeur Peak Area List At 7:12 a.m. (8:12 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Finally—this cool, cloudless early morning during my daily hike with dog—I got a photo of a flicker. Not sure when the last one happened (possibly last spring), but it’s been a while, with a few recent near misses. It popped up randomly in the Russian Olive. Just felt like a bit of serendipity.
Otherwise, very few hike species—nine, to be exact—including a hummingbird I could not ID.
However, oddly, it was a three-hawk day. First came the peregrine I spied before our hike, dining on breakfast atop the utility pole usually occupied by a red-tail. Then came a young Cooper’s I spotted during our hike, trying (but failing) to catch a scrub-jay in the big olive tree. Finally, in afternoon, a red-tail where the peregrine was having breakfast.
I’ll take a three-hawk day any day.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 7:22 a.m. (8:22 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 2. House Finch** 3. Spotted Towhee 4. Northern Flicker (v) 5. American Robin 6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7. Hummingbird (sp?) 8. Cooper’s Hawk 9. Black-capped Chickadee
Elsewhere
10. Peregrine Falcon 11. Red-tailed Hawk
Mammals
Red Squirrel
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
As forecast, today brought a little warm-up. I might’ve hoped for more in the way of arriving migrants, but the lack of such an influx didn’t dampen my morning hike with dog. At all.
It was a nice one. A little longer than usual, with a little more altitude. Plus, I spotted a first-of-year Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
And insects are out: butterflies, regular flies, silk and filaments. And flowers—heard (but did not see) what sounded like a Black-chinned Hummingbird. (Heard what sounded like a bunting, too, but could not confirm.)
More birding fun is on the near horizon.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:26 a.m. (8:26 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
