My wife and I were up in the Glacier Peak Wilderness on a four day alpine
hike/scramble. The first morning we were watching a couple bears eat
blueberries on the east side of Little Giant pass when I noticed these
birds swooping and darting around one of the bears. I got my bins from the
tent and it was three kestrels. They were very active and very close to the
bear and I could not figure in my morning pre-coffee haze what they were
doing apparently hassling a bear. One hovered right over the head of the
bear which seemed to annoy it enough that it sat up on its haunches. It may
have even pooped on the bear as the bear wiped his paw over his nose a
couple times. As we began hiking up the slope I discovered what the
kestrels were after....Grasshoppers. The overcast and cool weather made them
sluggish and they would only jump just before you were about to step on
them. To my delight, one of the kestrels came over and began swooping around
in front of me, making a couple of passes inside 4 feet, which was a bit
unnerving since they moved so fast.

A day later in the Napeequa river valley I walked up on a kestrel that was
bloated. I have never seen a bird so full before. It was late afternoon and
it was sleeping. As I approached, it open its eyes and cheeped weakly at me
but did not fly. The grasshoppers here were some of the biggest I have ever
seen, and they were numerous. I did not think to count kestrels but I am
sure we saw more than 20 on an 6 mile stretch of this remote alpine valley.
It seemed like each tree had a kestrel on it.

A mile or so down from High Pass I was sitting admiring the mountainous view
when a golden eagle came very fast and low up the slope. The wind was
blowing a bit in that direction and the eagle came through a narrow gap in a
cliff, then made a very fast and sharp 100 degree turn and went hurtling
down and across along a cliff face. It was very hard to see against the
cliff in the shadows, which I assume was by intention. It dropped elevation
then made another sharp fast turn down a meadow slope. The target was a
marmot who by now was moving as fast as marmots go. The eagle closed the
gap, closer and closer and I was jumping up and down like a spectator at a
sporting event. Just as the eagle closed the marmot disappeared into a hole
and the eagle swooped up. The marmot was safe by a couple inches. I think
if the marmot had been one second slower I would've watched an eagle eating
breakfast. As it was, the eagle went soaring in large circles with a
magnificent backdrop of mountains in the background.

I also saw 4 goshawks on this trip, the most I have ever seen in one trip.
The first one was at nineteen mile trailhead on the Chiwawa river rd., one
on the west side of Little Giant pass, one at high pass and one in the
about 2 miles downhill from Buck Creek Pass. The last sighting was the
best, I had stopped for a rest and was sitting when it came up out of the
bushes below me, perched on a snag for a full minute, preened itself, then
headed off. In the bushes where it came from were the remains of a Clarks
nutcracker which I could easily see from the trail.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com