At 5:50 a.m. this morning, a sound out my bedroom window brought me immediately from sleeping soundly to alert and awake. It was the distinctive, bright whistle of a mountain lion.

I only learned the sound a couple weeks ago, when I first heard it—and soon after saw (at a distance) what animal was doing the whistling. I’d then researched the sound online a bit, and apparently internalized its pitch and timbre. Which is why, upon awakening—instead of running for my camera and trying for photos—I lay there perfectly still with my eyes wide open.

A minute or two later, after I heard the cat’s final kip-kip as it moved away up the hill, I double-checked the recordings I’d found, Sure enough, that had to be a cougar. Later I heard a security cam on a street not far from me had captured a pic of a mountain lion this a.m. So it wasn’t a dream after all.

Thus, today’s hike with Captain Jack came with a little extra distraction—but the only critters I encountered up there were birds.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked some 1,500 feet up a mountain.

1. Black-chinned Hummingbird
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. Black-headed Grosbeak
4. Song Sparrow** (v)
5. Black-capped Chickadee
6. House Finch*
7. Lazuli Bunting
8. Spotted Towhee
9. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
10. Lesser Goldfinch* (v)
11. Pine Siskin (v)
12. Chipping Sparrow (v)
13. Warbling Vireo
14. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
15. Chukar
16. Violet-green Swallow

Elsewhere

17. California Quail
18. American Robin
19. Mourning Dove
20. Eurasian Collared Dove

Mammals

Mountain Lion (heard whistling)

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