As spring begins to blossom—my first in Utah—I’ve come to see that Spotted Towhees are perhaps the commonest nesting species in the foothills scrubland. And I like that just fine.
I’d grown intimately familiar with the Eastern Towhee back in Maine, and it’s been fun to get to know a very similar, yet very different bird. I know where several have set up a nest, have learned the variations in their songs. How well I know they’re subtle, whiny alarm note (so dissimilar from the Maine towhee’s familiar Dweep!).
It’ll be interesting to watch the youngsters hatch and fledge and fly.
Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.
1. American Robin*
2. Song Sparrow** (v)
3. Spotted Towhee
4. Northern Flicker (v)
5. Black-billed Magpie*
6. House Finch*
7. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
8. Pine Siskin (v)
9. Mourning Dove
10. Dark-eyed Junco
11. Black-capped Chickadee
12. Turkey Vulture
13. Wood-warbler (sp.)
Elsewhere
14. European Starling
15. Downy Woodpecker
16. Eurasian Collared Dove
17. Rock Pigeon
18. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
Mammals
Mule Deer
(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
