Took quite a few photos today but, oddly, the best were of mammals. After going over the bird pics, I decided to post a shot I took of a Dark-eyed Junco hanging out in a tree beyond my deck.
But my hike with dog—while briefer than yesterday’s—was a fun one. Deer and a cottontail and a nuthatch and a titmouse and a nippy breeze in the canyon and a warm sun under cloudless skies up the juniper barren. Then a quick grocery shopping trip, followed by glimpses of starlings bathing in a snowmelt puddle and pigeons sunning themselves on a utility line.
And that’s about the story of the first day of March. Tomorrow’s supposed to get to 50°.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:42 a.m. (MST), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
The past few days have brought a little excitement up the deer trail. This morning was a lovely one, with an interesting sky, deer and cottontail—and an unexpected Steller’s Jay. In fact, I heard a second Steller’s a bit farther up (they were both hiding in junipers but loudly vocalizing). And the near one even had the decency to pop up and pose for a photo or two.
(I’ve only seen this species three or four times since my move here, but now I believe I’ve learned a lot about its voice—shook-shook-shook, growl, and rattle.)
I had fifteen rather active bird species on my trail list today. Kind of feels like spring is on the way.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:41 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
It was hard for me to choose a high point of this morning’s short, extraordinarily sweet hike with dog. We were late to hit the trail, and left early because of errands that needed running. But, dang, did the birds put on a show.
Several first-of-year birds, a “lifer” subspecies—and at one point early on, from where I stood, I took decent photos of four bird species.
I was most excited, however, to solve a puzzle that’d been plaguing me for a week or more: what bird was making that faint, cricket-sounding call as it flew swiftly, intermittently, and (apparently) invisibly above us on our morning hikes? I’d been referring to it as “that cricket bird,” thinking the sound a vocalization. But this morning I finally caught sight of the source of the sound—a tiny hummingbird zipping away overhead.
Ah-ha! But which?
For some reason, I decided aloud that it must be a broad-winged hummer. And when I finally got home and looked it up, I was right! In fact, the Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website describes this wing-trill as having “a cricketlike quality to it.” Puzzle solved! (And what a relief!)
(Although I’ve marked today’s as a “first-of-year” sighting, the hummer has been hanging around for a week or more.)
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.
