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.
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.