Tweets,

Yesterday Matt Bartels, Michael Hobbs, Brian Bell and I left Seattle early for Greenwater and the Naches Pass birding sites we described in the most recent Washington Birder. Left at 6 AM and hit the trail before 8 AM in the cool air at 4500 feet below Government Meadows.

Matt and I and several others have been up this way several times this summer so far and have seen lots of interesting King County birds. Yesterday was no exception, though we did not relocate the Black-backed Woodpecker seen last weekend.

We glimpsed PINE GROSBEAKS twice above the cabin at Government Meadows, admired a brilliant pink male CASSIN'S FINCH at the upper meadow and located half a dozen MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES, including what appeared to be a juvenile. If Mountain Chickadees bred here it could be the first confirmed nesting for the county. A COMMON NIGHTHAWK and several VAUX'S SWIFTS cruised over the upper meadow. A few RED CROSSBILLS and EVENING GROSBEAKS flew over and CLARK'S NUTCRACKERS scrawked in the distance but could not be seen. One juvenile sapsucker appeared to be a RED-NAPED.

On the high ridge burn north of Windy Gap we located one VESPER SPARROW and a family group of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS near the nest site located on a previous visit, but the numerous Mountain Bluebirds present a few weeks ago had disappeared along with the Brewer's Sparrows, which were feeding young here a week ago, another first nesting record for the county.

We then drove to the Kelly Butte trailhead to test the new trail under construction there to bypass the "rope trick." It's still rough but an improvement already. Still no Rock Wrens, which were conspicuous nesters here last summer, but we were treated to a decent study of a female type CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD near where I had a female Black-chinned some weeks past. Another hummingbird -- likely a Rufous -- chased off a GOLDEN EAGLE after the eagle had made several close cruises just below our perch. I've seen Golden Eagles at Kelly Butte on nearly every visit now over several years and suspect they must nest on the cliffs of the butte somewhere. We also were visited by a female AMERICAN KESTREL. We did not see any of the resident mountain goats, but found several tufts of mountain goat wool on bushes along the trail to the lookout.

En route home we detoured to the 212th St. construction site ponds in Kent to see if any shorebirds might be around and though the water level is getting low on the main east pond, it held Killdeer, Spotted Sandpipers, single GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, six adult LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS (which actually called for us), half a dozen adult LEAST SANDPIPERS, and a single juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER.

Gene Hunn
18476 47th Pl. NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
enhunn323 at comcast.net