Tweets,
I took the day off to show my Dad, visiting from Florida, some mountain birds. We spent a couple of hours birding in the clouds along the south side of Mount Rainier. Just east of the huge snowfield east of Panorama Point we found two WHITE_TAILED PTARMIGAN tending to a lone chick. Later along the Skyline Trail above Panorama Point I finally located a flock of about a dozen GRAY_CROWNED ROSYFINCHES. On the way down we watched a "Silver" Red Fox carry off a chipmunk.
Despite intermittent sunshine between 7 and 8 am a thick bank of clouds moved in and stayed during the rest of our walk, and other bird-life remained hard to find. Several family groups of AMERICAN PIPIT worked the creeks along the Golden Gate Trail, and we found a few Ravens, Juncos, Mountain Chickadees, and Clark's Nutcrackers, near the inn.

I managed a few nice pics as the clouds rolled in...
http://www.pbase.com/hoodedcrow/newstuff

Good Birding,
Matt Pike
Lacey WA
hoodedcrow3b at yahoo.com