When dog and I hit the trailhead, we found ourselves in nippy (42° F) conditions. Evidence of sprinkles overnight, mostly clouds overhead. Fewer birds than yesterday: only seven spp.—until we’d made it up the gully to the deer trail, where a little batch of yellow-rumps and kinglets appeared in a juniper tree.
But the highlight of the hike happened on our return trip, when a solitary Lincoln’s Sparrow popped up on a wild rose bush at the old Monarch Quarry. Can’t remember the last time I saw one of those handsome birds.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 7:15 a.m. (8:15 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 2. House Finch** 3. Song Sparrow 4. Northern Flicker 5. Rock Pigeon 6. Black-capped Chickadee 7. Rock Wren 8. Yellow-rumped Warbler 9. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 10. American Robin 11. Lesser Goldfinch* 12. Lincoln’s Sparrow 13. Spotted Towhee (v)
Elsewhere
14. House Sparrow (v) 15. California Quail 16. Eurasian Collared-dove
Mammals
Red Squirrel Rock Squirrel
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
Cold and wet morning. Forties (F) and drippy from some overnight precip. Didn’t expect much in the way of birds or photos—but, as often happens, I was pleasantly surprised.
First were all the warblers flitting silently through the leafing-out hardwoods. (Sure enough not a lot of singing going on.) Next came some nice surprises at the misty summit: activity in the spruce grove including a Least Flycatcher, a Yellow Warbler, A Magnolia Warbler, a Wilson’s Warbler—and a first-of-preserve Lincoln’s Sparrow. Pretty sure that was the first of the species I had to ID on my own, in fact.
Sweet.
In all, thirty-six species on a drippy, gray day. I’ll take it.
Beech Hill List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked all trails.
1. American Robin* (v) 2. Ovenbird 3. Black-throated Green Warbler 4. American Goldfinch (v) 5. Chestnut-sided Warbler (v) 6. Hairy Woodpecker 7. American Redstart (v) 8. Veery (v) 9. Gray Catbird (v) 10. Northern Cardinal (v) 11. Herring Gull* (v) 12. Eastern Towhee 13. Rose-breasted Grosbeak* 14. Common Yellowthroat (v) 15. Hermit Thrush (v) 16. Northern Parula (v) 17. Yellow Warbler** 18. Song Sparrow** 19. Eastern Phoebe* (v) 20. Tree Swallow 21. Field Sparrow (v) 22. American Crow (v) 23. Blue Jay (v) 24. Cedar Waxwing 25. Lincoln’s Sparrow† 26. Magnolia Warbler 27. Least Flycatcher 28. Scarlet Tanager (v) 29. Wilson’s Warbler 30. Red-eyed Vireo 31. Northern Flicker (v) 32. Purple Finch (v) 33. Wood Thrush (v) 34. Black-capped Chickadee (v) 35. Black-and-white Warbler (v) 36. Common Raven (v)
Elsewhere
37. House Finch 38. Chipping Sparrow
v = Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere †First-of-year bird.
Big news today was the Yellow-headed Blackbird that showed up on the island. Big news for all the birders who saw (and didn’t) see it—especially, perhaps, my own self, since it was a lifer for me. However, back at the Trailing Yew later, as I popped into my room to change from shorts to jeans, the bird showed up all sunlit and photogenic on the tip of a spruce overlooking the yard. Dang it.
Monhegan List Tally of species from my fourth day on the island.
