Subject: Mt. Rainier NP 8/13
Date: Aug 13 22:09:40 2002
From: snowyowl98683 at msn.com - snowyowl98683 at msn.com


Hi Everyone--

I was contemplating the prospect of 100 degree weather in an apartment without air conditioning, and decided the thing to do was to go to Mt. Rainier. As I needed White-tailed Ptarmigan for a life bird, it was an easy decision to hike the Burroughs Mountain Trail by way of Sourdough Ridge. I left Sunrise at 0600 hours, just in time to see the sun break out on Rainier's summit. I haven't seen alpenglow like that in a very long time, it was most impressive. Flocks of Evening Grosbeaks were conspicuous between Sunrise and Frozen Lake. Around 0710 hours, as I was walking past the first Frozen Lake Viewpoint spur trail (roughly 1.5 miles from Sunrise), a ptarmigan came flying across the tundra ahead of me, and went out of sight as it passed the second Frozen Lake Viewpoint spur trail (the Burroughs Mountain, Fremont Lookout, and Wonderland Trails split off here). I was unable to relocate it. Feeling charged with optimism, I walked past Second Burroughs Mountain and halfway to Glacier Ridge, without seeing another one. There were 2 Brewer's Sparrows at the stone chair at the summit of Second Burroughs Mountain, and a juvenal-plumaged Brewer's at Frozen Lake on the way back. I thought the juvie had very dark, bold streaks on its breast, and wondered if anyone has determined if the timberline variety breeds as far south as Rainier. FYI, beware the Golden-mantled Squirrels at Second Burroughs Mountain: people feed them illegally, and they'll crawl over you looking for food.

It was a good day for butterflies, too; species noted were Anise and Pale Swallowtails, Cabbage and Checkered White, Spring Azure, Acmon Blue, Variable Checkerspot, a Speyeria frittilary, a lesser frittilary that was probably Purplish (some books call this a race of Arctic), and Milbert's Tortoiseshell.

A group of 5 Mountain Goats was keeping cool by sacking out in a snowfield, which of course had a several-hundred-foot vertical drop at its edge.

Mark Miller
Vancouver, WA
snowyowl98683 at msn.com