Subject: Mt. Rainier/Sunrise
Date: Aug 9 03:53:46 1998
From: Jim McCoy - jfmccoy at earthlink.net


We visited Mt. Rainier for the first time today. I got my life Clark's nutcracker (and my 2nd, and my 3rd, and...), golden eagle, gray jay, Steller's jay, raven, hummingbird sp., and wren sp.

I never got a really good look at the wren. The eye stripe, if present, was not dramatic. There was some dark barring on wings and tail, and bright rust at the base of the tail, which contrasted with the rest of the back and tail. The bill seemed yellowish, but the couple of looks I had were quite brief. It was in scrubby evergreen bushes adjacent to the picnic area at Sunrise, at a little over 6200 ft. This particular area, if you're not familiar, is near the tree line, with meadows alternating with small stands of trees. The slope it's on is not especially rocky.

The bird looked to be noticeably larger than a house wren. I think it was almost certainly either a rock wren or a canyon wren, but my various guides left me undecided about which. The call was a buzzy chatter, but still reminiscent of a wren. The only vocalization of either species with which I'm familiar is the song of the canyon wren, and this was a long way from that. If that doesn't give it away, does anyone have any opinions about which, if either, would be more probable in this setting?

We also took in a bull elk, three mule deer (two does and a fawn, all separately), and several golden-mantled ground squirrels and what I took to be yellow-pine chipmunks. All in all a pretty good show. The mountain wasn't bad, either...