Subject: White-tailed Ptarmigan on Mt Rainier
Date: Aug 21 02:16:03 2004
From: Paul Webster - paul.webster at comcast.net


On an otherwise quiet day on Mt Rainier (Friday, Aug 20) Georgia Conti and I
found 4 White-tailed Ptarmigan above Paradise on the Skyline Trail about
200-300 yards east of the highpoint where the trail makes the first
switchback down toward the Golden Gate Trail. The ptarmigan were a hen and
three first-year birds, the latter apparently two females and a male. The
birds are disconcertingly tame and wandered about on the trail as hikers
walked around them. When the hen stood next to a rock with her back to us
her gray plumage matched the color of the rock exactly and the black
blotches matched the black lichen that grows on the rocks thereabouts. She
is a very pretty bird.

Other species seen were Gray Jay (one perched atop the Paradise Lodge),
Common Raven (one overhead near Panorama Point), a half-dozen American
Pipits, a half-dozen Dark-eyed Juncos in the trees along the lower part of
the trail, and a few marmots, picas, and chipmunks. Beautiful weather, light
breeze, somewhat hazy atmosphere, with some gathering clouds in the early
afternoon.

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.webster at comcast.net