Hi Everyone--

On Saturday 7/13 I hiked up to the summit of Silver Star Mountain in Gifford Pinchot NF, Skamania County. It's a pretty easy one-mile hike, the wildflowers are outrageous, and you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens all at once. The smog is still here from the heat wave, and the occasional showers made barely a dent in it. From SR 503, I went east on Rock Creek Road, past Dole Valley Road and Lucia Falls to Sunset Campground, then went south on FR 41 to FR 4109 to the trailhead. Hummingbirds were all over the paintbrush, wherever there were roses or other bushes to perch on. No adult males, of course, but all appeared to be Calliope and Rufous (some had rufous in the base of the spread tail, some did not, and there were two sizes). I counted 12 total. I had Hairy and Pileated Woodpecker (I saw the Pileated barely in Clark County where FR 4109 meets the state forest); Olive-sided, Dusky, and Pacific-slope Flycatchers; Warbling Vireo; Varied, Hermit, and Swainson's Thrushes; lots of robins; Townsend's, MacGillivray's (also in Clark County), and Wilson's Warblers; Western Tanager; pugetensis White-crowned Sparrows; juncos; Purple Finches; and some Pine Siskins. Butterflies were abundant as well, including Clodius Parnassian, Anise and Pale Swallowtails, Western Sulphur, Boisduval's Blue, Hydaspe and Pacific Frittilaries, Variable Checkerspot, California and Milbert's Tortoiseshells, Lorquin's Admiral, California Sister, Great Arctic (new for me!), and Propertius Duskywing, plus others I could not identify. And in the scree slopes, I could hear pikas.

Mark Miller
Vancouver, WA
snowyowl98683 at msn.com