I am a lerker who reads the digest every couple of days. I spend about 150
days a year working at Mt. Baker near the ski area and have recorded the
arrival and last sighting of different species over the last 13 years, but
only casually as I have happened to see them or they come to my feeders.

This year we do have more snow. The weather was uncommonly warmer through
the winter but remained cooler later into the spring. But I saw violet green
swallows the last weekend of March, Rufous Hummers were at the feeders in
large numbers by about the third week of April (last year they arrived the
14th). Barn swallows and Vaux's swifts came in early May, though the swifts
are not as evident as they cannot feed over the lakes that are still
completely covered with snow.
Blue grouse were a little late in their mating hoots, though by last week we
were watching the males run around in full display.

The snow pack has melted quickly over the last three weeks but we do have
substantially more than most years and the thrushes have not shown up yet. I
did see an olive sided flycatcher last week. It is common to have occasional
snow storms into June. In 1992 we had 3 inches on June22. The interesting
thing is that the snow pack was not deep very far down the mountain this
year and melted quickly up to above 2500 feet.

I enjoy reading the discussions, even the speculations.
Phil Wegener, Bellingham