Hi Tweeters,
My wife and I went on a hike up to Snow and Gem Lakes off exit 52 of I-90 today. This was a hiking, not birding, trip, but about a third of the way up, I noticed a weird hump on a snag. You can imagine my excitement when further viewing and hasty but smooth retrieval of binoculars from the day pack revealed my first Northern Pygmy Owl!
This was definitely the highlight of the trip, but other birds that we saw included a Sharp-shinned Hawk and flocks of about ten each of Band-tailed Pigeons and Red Crossbills up at the lakes. We also got some wonderful close-up views of Gray Jays and Steller?s Jays, who were quite interested in helping us clean up any stray crumbs left over from our picnic.
As a final note, we saw 6 Turkey Vultures kettling near North Bend at about 11:30 on our drive up.

Good Birding,
Evan Houston Seattle, WA



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