Hi Tweets,

This past Sunday my husband and I did a quickie tour around Mt. Rainier
National Park, taking in a whole bunch of "mini-hikes". We spied a few
birds, but the congregation of Corvids at Paradise was impressive.

We had our lunch at the still snowy picnic area below the visitor center.
And we had visitors! First to arrive were the Gray Jays, swooping around
silently and dancing on the edge of the table looking ever so cute. In
quick order we had about five adult grays begging and attempting to steal
our lunches. Not long after the grays arrived a Clark's Nutcracker flew in
and surveyed our lunch. The Clark's let out some loud squawks and three
more Clark's zoomed in and announced loudly that lunch was waiting. Then I
caught a glimpse of dark blue coming in for a landing on a brach above my
husband's head. A Steller's Jay had arrived to join his "cousins". Soon a
raven landed in the top of the tree above our table, looked down on the
rumpus, gronked a couple of times and lazily flew off toward better pickings
at the lodge. After a few minutes the slate colored immature gray jays flew
in to see what "mom and dad" were up to. The youngsters opened their still
pink gapes and begged food from "mom". But it seemed as though "mom and
dad" were more intent on tutoring them in the fine art of begging off the
suckers down below (my husband and me!) The babies landed on the table and
danced around just like the adults. None of the birds tried to swoop down
on our sandwiches as we were eating them. My husband resited the temptation
to give the birds hand-outs to the very end. As we got into the car to
leave, one gray jay landed on the side-view mirror and stared right at me
and didn't fly off until the car was moving. Was the bird saying
"thank-you" or "Where's the main course?"

I expected the grays and Clarks to come calling , but I was surprised to see
a Steller's Jay that far up the mountain. How common are the Steller's Jays
at Paradise?

Oh, and on our way home we spied a Turkey Vulture swooping around outside of
Eatonville.

Lydia In Kent