Fun hike this morning. A bit clearer, a bit warmer. Quite a few species to start, but toward the end of it, I began to think I wouldn’t have a first-of-year bird for a change. I was wrong.

I heard the soft warbled notes from a newly leafed-out maple tree. I knew it was the voice of a Black-headed Grosbeak. I crept with Jack off the trail and approached the tree. As I got near, I discovered that the bird was in fact singing from the other side of the maple, but as I rounded the tree, it flew.

We crept up a slope, dog and me, and I looked in the direction of where the bird had flown—and spied it quite a distance away.

Tomorrow’s temperature is supposed to top 80° (F).

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:34 a.m. (8:34 MDT), I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Mourning Dove
2. American Robin*
2. Spotted Towhee
4. Lazuli Bunting
5. Black-chinned Hummingbird
6. Rock Pigeon*
7. House Finch**
8. Song Sparrow**
9. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
10. Lesser Goldfinch** (v)
11. Cooper’s Hawk
12. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay*
13. Chipping Sparrow
14. Black-capped Chickadee
15. Orange-crowned Warbler
16. Black-throated Gray Warbler
17. Black-headed Grosbeak‡
18. Black-billed Magpie*

Elsewhere

19. Eurasian Collared Dove
20. Red-tailed Hawk

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail
Mule Deer

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