Hi everyone,

I actually got out and did some birding this past weekend. My wife, mary
and I went camping in the Tiffany Mt. area.

We got to our campsite at Brown Meadows, 2.7 miles north of Freezeout
Ridge on Thursday at about 8:00 PM. By the time it was dark enough to call
it night, I heard what I thought was juv owls calling. After about 10
minutes, I heard a sharp "skew" from the tree above us. I knew that was an
owl. I got my spotlight out of the van along with the tape player. I
played the Boreal Owl call and with in seconds, an adult BOREAL OWL was on
the branch above me in full view. This was a lifer for me! It was the last
lifer that I could possibly get from the regular birds that occur in WA.
It will be vagrants from here on out. :(

I never saw any of the things that sounded like young owls. I assume they
were juv. calling to the adult bird that I saw.

The next moring there were more WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS than I could count
singing from the tops of the tress. They were ubiquitous all day long
every day we were there. We biked around the area later in the day. We
went to Tiffany Springs where we locked up our bikes and hiked down to
Tiffany Lake. Along the way I saw many THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS. There was
one tree with three of them at the same spot. I also came across a mixed
flock of passerines. There were about 12 BOREAL CHICKADEES, 5-8 TOWNSEND'S
WARBLERS, 10 OREGON JUNCOS, 5 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, AND 1
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. The best bird in this bunch was the
Orange-crowned, as it was bright yellow, making it _V. c. lutesens_ which
is more common on the west side of the mountains. Oddley enough we did not
see any grouse.

I tried for the owls again that night, and instead of a Boreal Owl, I got
a WESTERN SCREECH-OWL to come in.

The next day we woke to light rain. We planned to walk up to the top of
Tiffany Mt., but instead, we got in the van and drove up to Long Swamp,
about 25 miles to the north. Along the way, we saw many ROUGHED GROUSE. We
got back to the campsite at about lunch time. Once there, I needed to take
a walk to see a man about a horse. Once I got into a compromising
position, I looked to my right to see a male SPRUCE GROUSE, which was
clearly aggitated, about 5 feet away under a small spruce tree. This was
only the second Spruce Grouse that I have ever seen, and oddly enough, the
first was seen under similar conditions.

After lunch the skys were clear and we headed up Tiffany Mt. Along the
way, we saw many more Spurce Grouse. The most noteworthy thing above
treeline was a loose flock of about 30 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS.

The next day, Sunday, the rain looked like it was in to stay for a while
so we headed back early. All in all, not a bad weekend.

Russell

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Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com
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