I took my first trip up to the Sunrise side of Mt. Rainier yesterday, mostly
for the scenery but also hoping for something interesting. We started on
the trail to Frozen Lake and Burroughs Mountain at about 1:00 PM, only made
it to Frozen Lake before doubling back due to time and weather (the sun went
behind Rainier and the winds were picking up). Great views of Rainier and
the Cascades, and a few decent birds. The best being a juvenile NORTHERN
GOSHAWK perched in the open for about 3 minutes (finally! a decent look at
this species!) and being harrassed by a vocal MERLIN. The birds were seen
both in the parking lot and down at a vista overlook just off the parking
area. They were at eye level and the Goshawk circled near me for a bit
before heading off south.

Other birds:
3 Turkey Vultures (Enumclaw)
5 Red-tailed Hawks
1 Am. Kestral
2 Blue Grouse (1 with slate-colored belly, young male?)
1 N. Flicker (heard)
15+ Gray Jays (hard to count these)
1 Steller's Jay
7+ Clark's Nutcrackers (also hard to count)
12 Mountain Chickadees
2 R/B Nuthatch (heard)
3 R/C Kinglets
4 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS (heading south)
2 Varied Thrush
A. Robin (heard)
26 Am. Pipits
12 Y/R Warblers
D/E Junco
3 Savannah Sparrow

1 very tame HOARY MARMOT (I think it was a Hoary, it had a frosty back
blending into dark brown and gold on the rump, gold/brown tail-I'm just
assuming it is Hoary due to the back color)

Jason Paulios
JPaulios at hotmail.com
Olympia, WA


_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx