This will be my first post so excuse my mistakes. I went hiking with a
friend, not birding, sans optics, in the Mt. St. Helens National; Monument. We
hiked from the Lakes Trailhead on Coldwater lake on Lakes Trail (TR# 214) to
Bridge Junction, then up the Coldwater Trail (TR #230) to Tractor Junction.
>From there we hiked the South Coldwater Trail (TR #230A) to Hwy 504 and
followed it back to our vehicle. I saw the following birds without looking very
hard for them as we covered the 11.5 miles in a little over 5 hrs. The list
is pretty much in the order of sighting. I can't hear out of one ear, so I
can't detect the direction of bird sounds and am pretty much dependent on sight
detection. I am giving all this additional information as I believe if one
took the time they could probably have detected more birds. Out and back
along the lake shore would be a little over 10 miles of easy hiking with
essentially no elevation gain.

Sighted along the Lakes Trail:
Wilson's snipe
common merganser
mallard
song sparrow
house wren
dark-eyed "Oregon" junco
spotted towhee
Canada goose
rufous hummingbird
western wood peewee
spotted? sandpiper ( saw several sandpipers, mostly flying & too far off to
see well - one teetered after landing therefore guess spotted for at least
one)
bush tit
black capped chickadee

Sighted as we climbed up from the lake or at higher elevations:
northern flicker
American robin
bald eagle
Steller's jay
American crow
red-tailed hawk
white-crowned sparrow.

Two weeks ago on another hike in the Monument I saw a gray-headed rosy finch
near coldwater peak.

Jeff Jendro
_jeffjendro at aol.com_ (mailto:jeffjendro at aol.com)
Longview, WA




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