9 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘spotted towhe’

Lifer Owl

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
Mystery owl, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 23 February 2021.
Mystery owl.

Edit (02/21/2022): I’ve been informed that this is without a doubt a Western Screech Owl. A lifer for me!

I’d been angling for a photo of silent chickadees, as dog and I ascended the snowy trail up wooded Coyote Canyon, when the little birds zipped up ahead and began to call and scold. That’s when I noticed a larger bird shoot down through the tangles to my left to a perch. I aimed my camera at it and saw it was a small owl—but I couldn’t focus because of all the leaves and twigs between us. Again and again I tried, to no avail.

Wish I’d thought to grab my binoculars instead, ’cause then I might’ve managed an ID.

Since this was near the place I saw a Northern Pygmy Owl back in November, I assumed that’s what it was. But in looking at the blurry photos later, I couldn’t be sure. Its face seems to resemble a Northern Saw-whet Owl, but at the time (and in the photos), it looks like this bird has a long tail (the mark of a pygmy owl).

Still kind of leaning toward the latter—but I guess I’ll never know.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:57 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
3. Black-capped Chickadee**
4. American Robin* (v)
5. Spotted Towhee (v)
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
7. House Finch* (v)
8. Rock Pigeon*
9. Townsend’s Solitaire
10. Black-billed Magpie** (v)
11. Owl (sp?)
12. Northern Flicker (v)

Elsewhere

13. European Starling
14. Eurasian Collared-dove
15. Song Sparrow

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail
Mule Deer

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

Enjoyable Hike

Thursday, January 28th, 2021
Northern Flicker (red-shafted male), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 28 January 2021.
Northern Flicker (red-shafted male).

Kind of windy this morning. Also warmish (30s (F)). Plus, the gray skies were spitting snow. Moreover, we encountered very few birds. But we didn’t care, dog and I—was still an interesting, enjoyable hike.

Evidence of elk or moose, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 28 January 2021.
Evidence of elk or moose.

Did get a photo of a Northern Flicker, but I neglected to scan the Russian olives as we descended in that direction on our return and missed a small accipiter perched there, which dove away before I was near enough to get an ID. (I suspect a sharpie but can’t say for sure.)

Oh, and I found tracks of a large cervid (elk, or possibly moose). Which was cool.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:03 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Northern Flicker
2. Black-capped Chickadee**
3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
4. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
5. Spotted Towhee
6. House Finch* (v)
7. Accipiter (sp)

Elsewhere

8. Rock Pigeon
9. Black-billed Magpie

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail

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

Last Bird

Friday, January 22nd, 2021
American Kestrel, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 22 January 2021.
American Kestrel.

This day dawned warm (mid- to upper-30s (F)) and mostly overcast. My morning hike brought not many species, but pretty good numbers.

Birds were hopping back at home, though: I had as many species within ear- and eyeshot of my door. Sparrows, robin, chickadee (a species I did not have up the mountain trails)—and, last bird of the day, an American Kestrel, perched on a street light post overlooking the highway, with the city view behind him.

Thanks, kestrel.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 9:05 a.m. (MST), I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
2. House Finch**
3. Black-billed Magpie* (v)
4. Spotted Towhee
5. Rock Pigeon*
6. Northern Flicker
7. Dark-eyed Junco

Elsewhere

8. Song Sparrow (v)
9. House Sparrow (v
10. American Robin
11. Eurasian Collared-dove
12. European Starling
13. Black-capped Chickadee
14. American Kestrel

Mammals

Rock Squirrel
Red Squirrel

(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



3IP Logo
©1997–2025 by 3IP