’Tis the season of little flitty birds. Hiking this morning with dog, I saw a bunch, put a name on a few and missed a few. The funnest sighting: a Wilson’s Warbler (no photo). Migration’s begun for sure.
I also spied a few hawks for a change. Three coops (two circling, a young-un perched) and at last one sharpie.
But my favorite pic of the day was a portrait of a sparrow.
Grandeur Peak Area List At 7:27 a.m. (8:27 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
Good and bad news this morning. The bad news first: Jack didn’t want to go. He’s had a couple episodes the past few days (stick lodged in throat, finally swallowed, and a missed jump into the truck after a hike, causing a minor fall), and he’s been a little lethargic since, so we have a vet appointment on Monday—although yesterday he was fine on the trails. Still, I figured he could use a day off (first since October 2019).
So although I thought about him the whole way, I ended up doing a ridge hike—a long, slow walk uphill a good ways, then downhill again, all the while observing a whole heap of migrating birds.
Dog and I reverted to our usual hiking time this morning, deciding that the cool early shade might deliver as many species as later sunny, buggier conditions—plus, be more pleasant in the current warm, dry conditions. (Those conditions, by the way, are expected to change within a couple days, as a big cold front blows in.)
Still pretty quiet, with little obvious activity—but I dig a birding challenge and so have rather liked this pre-migration lull. Plus, I had a nice surprise bird: a lone female (perhaps immature male) Wilson’s Warbler popped up in shady Coyote Canyon near a pod of chatty chickadees.
And this afternoon at home—like icing on a cake—an immature Rufous Hummingbird made an appearance in the garden.
Grandeur Peak Area List Beginning at 8 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. Mourning Dove 2. Black-billed Magpie* (v) 3. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay 4. Rock Pigeon* 5. Spotted Towhee 6. Black-capped Chickadee* 7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 8. Wilson’s Warbler 9. Downy Woodpecker 10. Broad-tailed Hummingbird 11. Black-chinned Hummingbird 12. American Robin 13. House Finch** 14. Lesser Goldfinch**
Elsewhere
15. California Quail 16. Rufous Hummingbird
Mammals
Rock Squirrel
Reptiles
Side-blotched Lizard
(v) Voice only *Also elsewhere **Voice only elsewhere
