This morning’s hike with do became surreal in a hurry. First, the smoke remains (thicker than yesterday)—which kept things cool, at least. But it also made the light an odd orange-yellow. And I heard hardly any birds at all for a good part of our excursion. (Saw only a few, too.)
No towhees. No pigeons. One bunting. No gnatcatchers. A single cry from a young hawk. A sparrow I couldn’t identify.
At last, in the gully, hummingbirds rose and surrounded us—which, while a sweet relief, was also rather surreal.
[08/13/2021 update: Also surreal is the fact that my featured photo this date was a female Calliope Hummingbird, not a female broad-tailed. Yowza!]
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 7:09 a.m. (8:09 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
This morning’s cooperative bird was—much to my surprise—a Mountain Chickadee. It flitted, chattering, up to the bluff where dog and I had paused to look and listen. We stood still, and it approached very near, and I grabbed a few photos.
For some reason this happy episode got me thinking of all the species I’ve seen up there with “mountain” in their names. Mountain Bluebird, for instance, and Mountain Cottontail—even Mountain Coyote (which is more of a subspecies, I guess). I feel sure I’m missing at least one. But I’ve come to appreciate the perfection of that simple yet rich, descriptive term in their common names.
Thanks, little chickadee.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:24 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Within ten or fifteen minutes of hitting the trail this morning, I could tell last night brought fair migration winds. I say “fair” winds because of the good variety of species I spied early—Western Tanager, Western Wood-pewee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a few other species-in-a-hurry that I couldn’t ID. Has me psyched about the days to come.
Western Wood-pewee.
But the sweetest thing about my hike with dog this cool morning was the company of Black-capped Chickadees. What with the recent spate of western fires, a hurricane making landfall, and other dramatic climate events, it’d be easy to fall into a funk. But there they are, the chickadees, their optimistic-sounding voices as they check in with each other—voices so matter-of-fact and unworried that they attract other little silent species moving through the foliage.
One even flew within inches of my head today. I thought it might land on my hat, but it didn’t. Maybe someday.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8:11 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Black-billed Magpie* (v) 2. House Finch* 3. Black-capped Chickadee** 4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 5. Black-chinned Hummingbird 6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7. Spotted Towhee 8. Northern Flicker** 9. Western Tanager 10. Downy Woodpecker 11. Sparrow (sp) 12. Western Wood-pewee 13. American Robin 14. Yellow-rumped Warbler 15. Lesser Goldfinch* 16. Broad-tailed Hummingbird 17. House Wren
Elsewhere
18. California Quail
Mammals
Red Squirrel (v)
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
