You’ll have noted by now that I started keeping track of mammals recently. (And to a lesser degree, reptiles—which seem far less common.) Today there were two species: Mountain Cottontail and Rock Squirrel.

Both were in the area of the old lime quarry. The cottontail—a youngster—paused and posed a while. (A Rock Squirrel seen about the same time scramble into a little cave across the way.)

The elk and mule deer are dramatic in cold weather seasons, but I have a soft spot for the spring and summer cottontails.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:59 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Rock Pigeon*
2. House Finch*
3. Mourning Dove*
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
5. Chipping Sparrow
6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
7. Spotted Towhee
8. Black-capped Chickadee**
9. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
10. Northern flicker
11. Black-chinned Hummingbird**
12. Pine Siskin
13. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
14. Lazuli Buning (v)
15. Black-billed Magpie (v)

Elsewhere

16. Eurasian Collared Dove
17. Turkey Vulture

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail
Rock Squirrel

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