Tweets,



It was a rare sunny beautiful day so George Gerdts, Matt Bartels, and I
jumped at the chance to check out earlier reports of exciting winter finches
on the slopes above Stevens Pass on the King - Chelan County line.



By the time we got up to Stevens Pass the lots were full of skiers, the sky
was shocking blue, the evergreens flocked with hoarfrost, a perfect winter
day. We had to park 1.5 miles east at the Yodelin lot and ride the free
shuttle bus back to the ski area before hitting the Skyline Trail, which
starts behind the employee housing on the north side of the pass. Lots of
RED CROSSBILLS and PINE SISKINS about the ski lodge, affording fantastic
close looks. Things got a bit quiet as we trudged up the trail on our
snowshoes, barely avoiding being run over by errant snowboarders, until at a
flat spot at about 4900 feet elevation we enjoyed a visit by four hungry
GRAY JAYS and shortly thereafter heard a different sort of crossbill note
and got our first looks at WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, mixed with siskins and a
single female COMMON REDPOLL. We eventually got point blank looks at some
100 White-winged Crossbills, including adult males, females, and perhaps
juveniles. Curiously, most if not all the males showed dusky streaking on
the lower flanks and all showed dark gray undertail coverts broadly margined
with white. They also did a bit of singing on top of their kip-kip flight
calls. Mixed in were perhaps 10 CASSIN'S FINCHES, male and female, and one
fly-by CLARK'S NUTCRACKER that called several times before vanishing. We
climbed to a small summit on the ridge at 5450 feet, then headed back down.
On our descent we were visited by a small flock of ca. 10 Common Redpolls
but could only get good looks at a couple of females. Topping off our list
was a flock of 20 EVENING GROSBEAKS.



These birds have likely been here feasting on the abundant mountain hemlock
and silver fir seed crop for several months, as at least some of the
White-winged Crossbills looked like juveniles. It seems likely they may have
bred here this winter.



Gene Hunn

18476 47th Pl NE

Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

enhunn323 at comcast.net