9 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘mul deer’

My Favorite Stalk

Monday, December 21st, 2020
Townsend’s Solitaire, East Millcreek, Salt Lak City, Utah, 21 December 2020.
Townsend’s Solitaire.

This first day of winter dawned warmer than any day in the past couple weeks, at least—upper-30s (F), maybe low-40s. Mostly clear, with a dappled sky. Mud mixed with ice on the trails.

Dog and I were the only ones of our species on the trail this morning, a trail that deer had walked not long before. Plenty of birds about (if not a whole bunch of species). A few even posed for photos. But my thrillingest thrill of this solstitial day was when I heard the territorial notes of a Townsend’s Solitaire.

Same place as I’d seen a solitaire several times the past week or two: coming up the wooded gully of little Coyote Canyon, whose shade had kept the snow from melting. I slowed at once, snuck slowly up the trail, scanned the tips of trees, where I know solitaires like to perch. It’s a stalk I’ve done more than once before.

On a curve in the trail, I spied it high atop a juniper tree.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:45 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. House Finch**
2. Spotted Towhee
3. Black-billed Magpie*
4. Juniper Titmouse (v)
5. Dark-eyed Junco
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
7. Cassin’s Finch
8. Downy Woodpecker
9. Rock Pigeon*
10. Pine Siskin (v)
11. Black-capped Chickadee
12. Northern Flicker**
13. Townsend’s Solitaire
14. American Robin (v)

Elsewhere

15. European Starling

Mammals

Mule Deer
Red Squirrel

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

Deck Birds

Sunday, December 20th, 2020
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay on the deck rail, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 20 December 2020.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay on the deck rail.

Had a nice hike with Jack this morning, as always. Aside from two ravens in fast flight, the usual bird species. (Lots of juncos.) Beautiful scenery—snow-powdered peaks under mostly cloudy skies. But the most bird action happened right around the house. Specifically on and below my deck.

The deck faces west, with a nice view of the basin (city lights at night) and, beyond, the Oquirrh Mountains. On the deck rail today—three noisy scrub-jays and a junco. Below, a towhee, finches, more juncos. On the utility lines between me and I-215, starlings, pigeons, and a Mourning Dove.

The last full day of fall was a good one, and daylight gets longer starting tomorrow.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:49 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Black-billed Magpie*
2. House Finch**
3. Common Raven
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
5. Spotted Towhee* (v)
6. Pine Siskin (v)
7. Rock Pigeon*
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Dark-eyed Junco*
10. Lesser Goldfinch (v)

Elsewhere

11. American Robin (v)
12. Mourning Dove
13. Northern Flicker
14. European Starling

Mammals

Mule Deer

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

 
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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