Louise,

My wife and I spent seven hours at Sunrise on Monday, and never saw a single Gray Jay. I had to laugh when I looked at the Mt. Ranier bird checklist to see Gray Jay annotated as being ABUNDANT this time of year.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie, MD
dy.dx at earthlink.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Louise Rutter
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 7:50 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Mountain ramblings and jays


I took advantage of the cooler weather to head off for some August east side hiking that wouldn't be unbearable. I went to Minotaur Lake, between Stevens Pass and Lake Wenatchee, more for the hike than for the birds, but if the birds happen to be around....



I saw a nice selection of mountain species, including hermit thrush, golden-crowned kinglet, winter wren, pine siskin and chipping sparrow, now sadly dressed for winter - the first one gave me a weird moment when it looked like a Brewer's sparrow before I remembered! And finally, *finally*, I found my first-of-year gray jays.



I've been to Sunrise and Paradise, I've been to campgrounds and picnic sites and up mountain trails, and the gray jays have been absent from all of them till now. Has anybody else noticed them missing from their traditional haunts, or have I just been unlucky before?



Louise Rutter

Kirkland



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