9 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘lesser goldfnch’

Fun Hike

Monday, September 13th, 2021
Chipping Sparrow, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah,13 September 2021.
Chipping Sparrow.

Fun hike today. Cool in the mountain shade, with a cloud-dappled blue sky above. And lots of birds.

Mostly finches (more than 40 in all), but also a couple of calls I didn’t recognize and the first kinglet in a while—meaning migration is in fact underway.

Flitting around with the finches were at least one pair of chippies. One even sat for a photo.

Grandeur Peak Area List
At 7:11 a.m. (8:11 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Northern Flicker (v)
2. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
3. House Finch**
4. Spotted Towhee
5. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
6. Rock Pigeon*
7. Lesser Goldfinch
8. Black-chinned Hummingbird
9. Chipping Sparrow
10. Black-capped Chickadee
11. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
12. Nashville Warbler
13. American Robin
14. Black-billed Magpie** (v)

Elsewhere

15. Eurasian Collared-dove
16. Mourning Dove

Mammals

Rock Squirrel

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

Surprise Bird

Monday, May 17th, 2021

A lovely hike with dog this clear, birdy morning. Before we’d barely left the switchback, in fact, I had more than a dozen species on my list—including a strange, unexpected bird perched in the big Russian olive tree.

A huge-beaked bird it was, but no Black-headed Grosbeak. Every several seconds it emitted a single bright note, a call I didn’t recognize. Had to be another grosbeak, but which could it be? Not until we got back home and I searched the Cornell Lab site for Utah grosbeaks did I realize what I’d seen: an Evening Grosbeak, a female or immature male.

. Every several seconds it emitted a single bright note, a call I didn’t recognize. Had to be another grosbeak, but which could it be? Not until we got back home and I searched the Cornell Lab site for Utah grosbeaks did I realize what I’d seen: an Evening Grosbeak, a female or immature male.

Decades ago, back in Maine, great flocks of Evening Grosbeaks descended during winter irruptions, and I got to know them very well. And then one year they didn’t return, and I hadn’t seen one since. Not in a span of at least 30 years—and never, I think, a solo individual.

Good to see you, great-beaked bird. I hope you find more of your kind.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:05 a.m. (8:05 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Song Sparrow** (v)
2. Lazuli Bunting
3. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
5. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
6. Spotted Towhee
7. Black-chinned Hummingbird
8. American Robin* (v)
9. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
10. Evening Grosbeak†
11. Chipping Sparrow
12. Rock Wren
13. Rock Pigeon (2)
14. Black-capped Chickadee
15. Warbling Vireo (v)
16. Black-billed Magpie* (v)
17. Black-throated Gray Warbler (v)
18. Orange-crowned Warbler (v)
19. Hermit Thrush
20. House Finch
21. Black-headed Grosbeak
22. Turkey Vulture

Elsewhere

23. House Sparrow
24. Eurasian Collared-dove (v)

Mammals

Red Squirrel
Rock Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year bird

 
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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