A few showers overnight, and more showers this morning, so dog and I waited a bit before embarking on what I knew would be a slippery, muddy hike. Which was awesome. A nice assortment of birds—including a handsome wren, a pair of vultures, the neighborhood redtail. Was also a three-mammal day. Got good and muddy, slipped three or four times, but never fell down.
Also busy at home, bird-wise: quail, sparrows, finches, and robins poking about in the garden. (The robins are doing some major nest-building.) A sunny, warm afternoon.
A springy day for sure.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 10:36 a.m., sun time, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Pine Siskin** 2. American Robin* 3. Spotted Towhee 4. Black-capped Chickadee** 5. House Finch* (v) 6. Rock Wren 7. Red-tailed Hawk 8. Black-billed Magpie* (v) 9. Northern Flicker* (v) 10. Turkey Vulture 11. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 12. Cooper’s Hawk 13. Dark-eyed Junco (v) 14. Song Sparrow* (v)
Elsewhere
15. House Sparrow 16. Eurasian Collared-dove 17. Lesser Goldfinch 18. California Quail
Mammals
Rock Squirrel Mountain Cottontail Mule Deer
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
Saw hawks and a wren this unseasonably nippy, overcast, windy morning. The wren was hopping about in the rocks around the old abandoned Monarch Quarry, the hawks were sailing in the wind. A red-tail, in fact, looked to be hunting for rabbits at the quarry. (Saw a cottontail, early, but before the hawk showed up.)
At home, the robins are still constructing a nest—possibly in the ivy around the chimney.
Gonna snow tonight.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 8:02 a.m., sun time, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. American Robin* 2. House Finch** 3. Rock Pigeon* 4. Spotted Towhee 5. Pine Siskin (v) 6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 7. Northern Flicker (v) 8. Black-capped Chickadee 9. Song Sparrow* (v) 10. Black-billed Magpie* 11. Turkey Vulture 12. Cooper’s Hawk 13. Red-tailed Hawk
Elsewhere
14. House Sparrow (v) 15. Lesser Goldfinch (v) 16. California Quail
Mammals
Mountain Cottontail Mule Deer
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
A cool but sunny morning, destined to be a warm midday, and for some reason dog and I headed up to the eastern ridge—and kept right on going. I didn’t bring a lot of water, but I guessed (correctly) that there’d be snow up there, so Jack had plenty of water. Even thought of continuing up to Grandeur Peak again, but we’re two years older now, and both have semi-creaky joints.
So we stopped at about 7,500 feet.
But what an accomplishment. We both felt it. We also felt a few aches and pains—but there was scenery, there were smells, there were birds and deer and distances.
Hell of a hike. Dog’s been snoozin’, and I had to take an ibuprofen.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 7:56 a.m., sun time, I hiked about 2,500 feet up a mountain.
1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 2. American Robin* 3. Rock Pigeon* 4. House Finch** 5. Spotted Towhee 6. Pine Siskin** 7. Northern Flicker* (v) 8. Black-capped Chickadee (v) 9. Chukar 10. Townsend’s Solitaire 11. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12. Common Raven 13. Song Sparrow* (v)
Elsewhere
14. House Sparrow (v) 15. California Quail 16. Lesser Goldfinch 17. Eurasian Collared-dove (v) 18. European Starling
Mammals
Mountain Cottontail Mule Deer
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere