Hi Tweeters,

I drove in this morning to work at the U early to look for the Scissor Tailed Flycatcher. No luck and no other birders around to add those extra eyes. I will check again after work.

The White Tailed Ptarmigan at Paradise was a resounding success. I found I wasn't in as bad a shape as I thought, although I am very slow moving. Just beyond the snowfield to the east of Panarama Point was two males and a female. I ran into the Sullivan's and a couple I introduced myself to but can only remember their last names, Hayden (I think), and Theil. Another gentleman was with the Sullivan's but I didn't catch his name. The highlight for me watching the ptarmigan was the female was trying to join up with the males who had wandered next to a snow patch to rest and she went looking on the wrong side and then jumped up on the snow and ran like the dickens over the snow to the males. I got some so-so looks at the Gray Crowned Rosy Finches, another lifer. Many American Pipits here and there, some perched on rocks, dipping their tails. I ran into another birder and spoke with him for awhile about the ptarmigan on the way down and he had just passed the female and 4!
chicks
that Jerry Broadus described the location of so well. I didn't go back Golden Gate just because I had never been up as far as this before and wanted to go the for the views of the falls. About the time I was giving up hope of ever getting back I entered a small grove of fairly large trees and got to see a male Varied Thrush gathering food for babies. I tried to keep track of him, as I would have loved to locate the nest, but he hopped down a bank and was lost from sight.

I saw what I presume to be ptarmigan tracks all over the place, off the upper reaches of the Dead Horse trail. Well padded feet and with the metric ruler in front of me I would guess 5 to 7mm wide. Another interesting track was made by some little critter with a tail. They looked like a miniture two lane road with inverted lines. The dashed lines on the outside and the solid line in the middle.

Hope the Scissor Tailed Flycatcher is around tonight.

Kathy

Kathy Andrich
Roosting in Renton
chukarbird at yahoo.com





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