Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I ventured back up to Paradise at Mt.Rainier to check on the White-tailed Ptarmigans and to additional mountain birding at a few other nearby locations. We had a very good day of birding primarily at Paradise and shorebirding made at two visits at the east end of Alder Lake immediately west of Elbe along S.R. 7. Our day began at Sunny Beach Point Park(accessed off of S.R.7 west of Elbe),where a walk in to the park past the entrance gate and down to the lakeshore produced a single Greater Yellowlegs. Further east along S.R.7 we stopped along the shoulder and made a generous scoping on the extensive exposed mudflats that are apparent as you approach Elbe at the east end of Alder Lake and north of the Nisqually River. We were able to locate several of the same species that Wayne Weber noted on his visit to this location on the 25th of July with several additions,specifically shorebirds. Most noteworthy shorebird species encountered included up to 3 juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers that were easily picked out from the small scattered flocks of Least and Western Sandpipers,of which most birds of the latter two species were juvenile birds with a few adult birds noted. This was our first personal experience of more than 2 shorebirds species noted at this location,but it is probably definite limited numbers of shorebirds forage at this location annually when water levels are appropriate,specifically in the mid summer through fall. Up to 7 species of shorebirds were encountered during our morning visit along with other notable species encountered including the following:

10 female Harlequin Ducks
4 female Common Mergansers
1 Osprey
52 Killdeer
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
15 Spotted Sandpipers
3 Semipalmated Sandpipers
8 Western Sandpipers
70+ Least Sandpipers
1 Baird's Sandpiper
3 Ring-billed Gulls
38 California Gulls

We continued east and arrived at the east parking lot at Paradise at 7:15am and before hiking on the Skyline Trail we checked the parking lot area that hosted a fairly good songbird flock in the nearby trees and vegetation along the north edge of the parking lot. We allowed a good search of the flock that produced the following species:

1 Calliope Hummingbird
1 Gray Jay
9 Mountain Chickadees
5 Red-breasted Nuthatches
3 Winter Wrens
25+ Golden-crowned Kinglets
12+ Orange-crowned Warblers
15 Yellow-rumped Warblers
8 Townsend's Warblers
5 Hermit Warblers
1 MacGillivray's Warbler
4 Chipping Sparrows
5 Song Sparrows
30+ Dark-eyed"Oregon"Juncos
6 Red Crossbills
17 Pine Siskins

After beginning our hike with a very good start for the day with a good list of passerines we continued along the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point,then ran into Marv Breece at 9:30am,who was watching 3 White-tailed Ptarmigans(2 adult males,1 adult female)along the seasonal trail east of Panorama Point. This is the same location where most of the ptarmigan sightings have come from in nearly all of the past Tweeters postings and was at nearly the same location than we observed 4 adults males White-tailed Ptarmigans on the 27th of July. We continued watching the three birds along the south side of the trail,as the foraged and preened at very close range allowing great photos to be taken. The birds remained at the location until they moved further down the rocky hillside,but remained in view until we left the location at 10:30am. We hiked the upper portion of the Skyline Trail that continues north of Panorama Point and travels north and east allowing great views of the south side of Mt.Rainier and distant views of Camp Muir along with the many hikers that were presumably traveling to that location,as we watched them crossing vast snow fields. This trail eventually rejoins the seasonal trail,which we hiked along back to the original ptarmigan location. Upon our arrival back to the ptarmigan location(along the seasonal trail east of Panorama Point)we nearly immediately observed the 3 birds foraging rather loosely on the large,exposed rocks with minor vegetation,as other birders showed up and observed them as well with good views from several angles. We watched the 3 birds forage and preen along the rocky hillside south of the trail until an additional adult male flew in from the rocky ridgeline to the north and landed nearly along the trail,as we watched it aggressively attack another male for a feeding spot. This fairly quick behavior was the most exciting interaction we had observed during our two visits to the location and it may have been apparent that the additional male was more dominant and seemed to show an overall crisper,well marked plumage. The 4 birds resumed feeding and preening until we left the location at 1:30pm and worked our way back to Paradise via the Skyline Trail. We ended up with a total of 4 White-tailed Ptarmigans for the day(3 adult males,1 adult female),although other birders we spoke with observed additional birds at other locations. It was nice to have both sexes together for separation in plumage characteristics.

Other notable species noted to and from destinations from Panorama Point included the following:

1 immature Red-tailed Hawk(presumed same individual than noted on the 27th)
2 "Alpine"Horned Larks
1 Townsend's Solitaire
9+ Am.Pipits
2 Townsend's Warblers
2 Wilson's Warblers
4 Chipping Sparrows
18+ Gray-crowned Rosy Finches(1 adult male,6 adult females,11+ juveniles,of which most occurred near or at the ptarmigan location east of Panorama Point with 1 adult female and 4 juveniles noted below Panorama Point)

On our way home from Paradise we checked a few locations beginning along a loop trail around the Longmire mineral springs,which was fairly quiet during our visit at 2:45pm,but we noted a few additional species for the day including the following:

14 Band-tailed Pigeons
7 Vaux's Swifts
2 Hammond's Flycatchers
7 Common Yellowthroats

Our final stop of the day was made along S.R.7 at 5pm(immediately west of Elbe)at the east end of Alder Lake,where we scoped the exposed mudflats in search of shorebirds. Overall shorebirds numbers were quite lower and more scattered than our morning visit,but we encountered a few noteworthy species with a few additions including the following:

2 female Northern Pintails
1 Semipalmated Sandpiper
9 Baird's Sandpipers
2 Long-billed Dowitchers


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20030802/69c46064/attachment.htm