Day 196: July 14th – Top of the mount

Continued sunny and hot

       It’s another sunny and hot day on Mount Tremblant as we head up to the top of the mountain.  A thirteen minute gondola ride takes us from our hotel up to the summit where fewer people, less commotion from the blues festival, and simply put better habitat will hopefully bring us a few more birds.

       This is still a ski resort property and not the wilds of the Mt. Tremblant National Park, but it is much more conducive to birding and as soon as we hit the top, we hear the refrain of the White-throated sparrow.  These are pretty much winter birds for us in the lower Hudson Valley, so the song is welcome to say the least.  Our friend Dan and I head down the slope towards the site of the song and before long we have a sparrow dart across in front of us.  As we watch the pines, we find a pair which remain pretty much hidden within the cover of the needles.  I open up the aperture and boost the speed of the sensor up to 1250 (fast, but with the potential for grain) and fire away.  We are close enough that even under these conditions, the shot is acceptable and makes for decent blog material.

        We return to the summit and take a short hike over to the tower which looks out over the village below.  From the tower we could hear more of the white-throats, a few chickadees (unfortunately of the Black-cap variety, not Boreals) and a few juncos.  Like the white-throats, we don’t see many juncos in the valley, at least at our elevation, during summer.  As we moved down to the next observation deck, we found the individual responsible for the high trill we heard from higher up on the slope.  This bird was much more accommodating regarding its willingness to sit out in the open and pose for us.  Perhaps it was just our proximity to the bird, but he seemed to be a bit larger than most of the juncos I’ve had at my feeders during the winter months.  All a matter of perspective, I suppose. 

       After unsuccessfully trying to capture an image of a couple of ravens which were in the area,  we headed back down to the village and to the festival.  If you click on the image below, you’ll get a short cut of some of the kind of music we are here to enjoy.  Tomorrow, I may make another venture up to the summit and try for those ravens again.