Warmed up to 50 degrees (F) today. Dog and I headed up the hill early, what with the increasing photoperiod—and the idea that we might avoid a little of the mud we encountered yesterday. And avoid we did.

An active mountainside, replete with elk and deer and multiple bird species. (Scrub-jays were particularly abundant.) Toward the end of our hike, I got to chatting with a fellow hiker about wildlife and birds, and I mentioned that I’d sometimes “see ravens perched on that rock up there on the ridge to the left of the elk herd—wait, there’s one now!”

(Sometimes, if you pay close enough attention, you can call shots like that.)

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:15 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up the mountain.

1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. Dark-eyed Junco*
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. House Finch**
6. Lesser Goldfinch**
8. Northern Flicker**
9. European Starling*
10. Common Raven

Elsewhere

11. Song Sparrow
12. Rock Pigeon

Mammals

Rocky Mountain Elk
Mule Deer

*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere