Hi Tweets,

My wife, Kristi, and I decided to head up to the mountains today and see
what was kicking about. There had been so many reports of high elevation
birds (like Mountain Chickadee) down in the Puget Sound lowlands that we
decided to see what we could find higher up. We were not disappointed,
although the total number of species found was quite low. We drove east on
Highway 2 until just east of Skykomish (around MP 49). We then took FR 65
north and FR 6520 up to Johnson Ridge at about 3500 feet. The heavy fog and
showers down on Hwy 2 gave way to bright sunshine up near the trailhead at
the terminus of 6520. In a couple of hours we had two flocks of Red
Crossbills (and one solitary female calling louding). A Blue Grouse
exploded from a conifer just above our heads, and a very cooperative N.
Pygmy-Owl joined us for lunch, perching in a nearby tree while we had a
snack near the bottom of the trail. Varied Thrushes were quite common, and
we had three species of chickadee (not Boreal) along with the expected high
elevation passerine flocks. We took the Johnson Ridge trail up, and ran
into patches of snow after only about half a mile. By the one mile mark,
the snow was covering the path 4-5 inches deep. The air and sun felt warm
though, and we found many interesting tracks in the snow including a
medium-sized cat track (bobcat or small mountain lion?). This is a
wonderful hike and a really neat area. FR 65 and 6520 are great roads -
some of the best forest roads I've ever been on. But you might want to
check the weather and snow level before heading up. Ken Knittle did a great
little write-up about this area in his Fall, 2001 Washington Birder
newsletter (Volume 9, #3). Species we saw near the top included:

Bald Eagle
N. Pygmy-Owl
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Varied Thrush
Red Crossbill

Good birding!

Hans


Hans de Grys
Bothell, WA
degrys AT verizon DOT net