9 February 2025

Posts Tagged ‘western kingbird’

Hummingbird Season

Friday, August 13th, 2021
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (male), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 13 August 2021.
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (male).

Hummingbirds are everywhere just now—especially in the leafy gully called Coyote Canyon. Broad-tails, mostly, but also black-chins and the occasional rufous. Plus (I just found out today, when an ebird hummingbird expert corrected a couple errant IDs I made a few days back) calliopes. Encountered at least a dozen hummers in the gully this morning.

Also witnessed a dramatic chase, when a Cooper’s Hawk whooshed from the slope behind dog and me in pursuit of a robin. The robin flew as fast as it could, weaving through the trees with the hawk on its tail, calling as it fled (in robin language) Hawk! Hawk! Gotta confess, that hawk’s whooshing wing sounds gave me goose flesh as it sailed past not six feet from me. Not sorry I didn’t see the result of that chase.

Later this hot afternoon, during errands, I saw three crows. That was cool

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 6:57 a.m. (7:57 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Lesser Goldfinch**
2. Mourning Dove
3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
4. Western Kingbird
5. Spotted Towhee
6. Black-chinned Hummingbird
7. Rock Pigeon
8. Black-billed Magpie* (v)
9. House Finch*
10. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
11. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
12. Downy Woodpecker (v)
13. American Robin
14. Cooper’s Hawk
15. Black-capped Chickadee
16. Warbling Vireo (v)

Elsewhere

17. Eurasian Collared-dove
18. House Sparrow
19. California Quail
20. American Crow

Mammals

Red Squirrel
Mountain Cottontail

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

Kingbird

Wednesday, June 9th, 2021
Western Kingbird (first-of-year), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 09 June 2021.
Western Kingbird (first-of-year).

Another dry, breezy morning without a lot or singing birds. The residents have nests, seems sure, and a few species are still moving through.

For instance, the first-of-year Western Kingbird we happened upon, dog and I. Heard it first, didn’t recognize its voice—I haven’t encountered more than a handful, and only one or two in spring—then managed a photo from a distance. Six vultures circled through also. The rest (of only fourteen spp. total) were locals.

In other news, for the second straight day I watched a pair of gnatcatchers chase a scrub-jay from its perch in the big Russian olive tree.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:09 a.m. (8:09 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Lazuli Bunting
2. Spotted Towhee
3. Black-chinned Hummingbird
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
5. House Finch**
6. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
7. Rock Pigeon*
8. Western Kingbird†
9. Turkey Vulture
10. Chipping Sparrow (v)
11. Warbling Vireo
12. Black-capped Chickadee**
13. Cooper’s Hawk
14. Song Sparrow** (v)

Elsewhere

15. American Robin
16. Black-billed Magpie
17. European Starling
18. Mourning Dove
19. House Sparrow**

Mammals

Rock Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
†First-of-year bird

Sharpie Stalk

Monday, August 24th, 2020
Sharp-shinned Hawk, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 24 August 2020.
Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Sneaking down to the bluff this morning—the bluff overlooking the basin, a regular first stop on my daily hike with dog—I surprised a little Sharp-shinned Hawk perched in a stubby scrub oak. The hawk flew back toward the mountain but didn’t top the rise, I saw, so I crept toward it along a deer trail and spied it perched in another scrub oak not too far away.

Had I not been sneaking, the hawk would’ve flow long before I got within twelve or fifteen feet of it. Had I not followed its flight, I wouldn’t have noticed its failure to top the rise. Had I not bothered to creep toward it (despite the distance), I’d’ve never got its photo.

A birder’s instinct, I reckon.

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

1. Mourning Dove*
2. House Finch*
3. Swallow (sp)
4. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay**
5. Black-billed Magpie*
6. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
7. Western Kingbird
8. Spotted Towhee
9. Sharp-shinned Hawk
10. Black-capped Chickadee
11. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
12. Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Elsewhere

13. Rock Pigeon
14. Eurasian Collared Dove (v)
15. Lesser Goldfinch
16. California Quail

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail

(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



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