I spent Monday, August 13 on the same trails at Paradise on Mount Rainier. I got good
photos of a female Blue Grouse along the path and some nice photos of the underwing
view of California Tortoiseshell butterfly and a blue/purple shiny tiger beetle. I saw
a good group of Townsend's Warblers but, sigh, no Nashville Warblers and no Ptarmigan.

The butterflies in the Mount Rainiers meadows are intruguing in a year like this, when
the wildflowers are unusually glorious. I saw lots of fritillaries and a checkerspot
but I could never get a good enough view to determine species. National Parks control
the unwashed masses (that includes me) to such an extent that it's hard to inventory
species like butterflies. You can't catch 'em and you can't chase them unless they
stay over the paved trail. So, I'll remain frustrated with inability to identify most
of what I've seen. Of course, we could take comfort knowing that the Park Service
has professional biologists with nearly complete knowledge of park fauna but, my
experience is that they don't have such people.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov