Hi Everyone--

I finally made the trip to Mt. Rainier NP on Monday 8/11 to search for
ptarmigan. A five-hour search out of Paradise produced no ptarmigan, but
the number of juvenile birds in general up there was impressive. I hiked
part of the Alta Vista Trail, the lower eastern section of the Skyline
Trail, the Golden Gate Trail, and the section of Skyline Trail between
the Golden Gate Trail and the Upper Skyline Trail.

List of birds:
Northern Flicker
Gray Jay [1]
Clark's Nutcracker
Common Raven
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
American Dipper [2]
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
American Pipit [3]
Orange-crowned Warbler [4]
Yellow-rumped Warbler [4]
Townsend's Warbler [4]
Hermit Warbler [4]
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Siskin
Evening Grosbeak [5]

[1] 10 juvs, 1 ad between the visitor center and Paradise Inn.
[2] 1 juv in a small stream that crosses the Golden Gate Trail.
[3] Common along the Golden Gate Trail. Both ads and juvs.
[4] Along the Alta Vista Trail there was a large feeding flock
consisting mainly of juv Chipping Sparrows and juv Dark-eyed Juncos, but
with 5 Orange-crowns, 1 Yellow-rump, 1 juv Townsend's, and 2 juv
Hermits.
[5] Several flocks flying overhead around the visitor center.

Two people on the trail mentioned seeing ptarmigan, but when they said
where they had seen them, I had a feeling they were talking about Blue
Grouse. Parties of hikers in crampons were crawling all over the
snowfield east of Panorama Point.

Wildflowers are in fine form there now. Saw a few butterflies: Pacific
and Hydaspe Frittilaries, Spring Azure. Saw some mammals: Mule Deer with
fawn on the Alta Vista Trail, Hoary Marmot, Cascade Golden-mantled
Squirrel, Pika, Yellow-pine Chipmunk.

Mark Miller
Vancouver, WA
snowyowl98683 at comcast.net