Lured by the reports of finches falling from the sky, I headed up the
Skyline Trail at Stevens Pass today along with John Puschock, who turned out
to be my surprise multi-talented personal bird guide for the day, and all
for free J (Googling tells me that Skyline Ridge is officially known as
Heather Ridge on the maps, but everyone calls it informally after the lake.)



A flock of pine siskin were visible feeding by the roadside as we climbed up
the pass, but we didn't get chance to see if there were any other species
mixed in there. From the car park, we quickly picked up gray jay across the
road, and a small flock of red crossbill in front of the western-most
building on the south side. Those were to be our only red crossbills of the
day.



16 minutes from the car by John's watch, and just a few hundred yards up the
trail, we hit the first big finch flock - pine siskin, evening grosbeak, a
small number of Cassin's finch and some lovely close views of white-winged
crossbills feeding just above eye level. A life bird for me, and an obliging
one with a decent chance for photos, even under the overcast skies.



Moving up the trail, the pattern was one of heavy mixed flocks followed by
long, silent birdless stretches between. It's hard to put numbers on them,
with multiple mini-flocks of 10-20 birds wheeling around and darting between
trees, but we probably saw equal numbers of pine siskin and white-winged
crossbill during the trip - from life bird to 'It's another flock of
crossbills' in the space of a couple of hours!



As we climbed higher, we began picking single common redpolls out of the
siskin flocks, seeing half a dozen or so during the morning. We climbed up
to the top tower, which was a nice birdy spot, and then side-tracked to the
lake, which was almost bereft. The pine grosbeaks waited for our descent to
pay us a visit, a male and a female materialising mysteriously in a tree
right alongside the trail while our binocs were on the crossbills, sitting
beside crossbills and siskins for a perfect size comparison. Another life
bird for me - I hadn't realised finches came that big! As I opined that they
couldn't possibly be more cooperative, John stated that they could if when
they left us, they flew west along the trail and across the line into King
County. Well, the birds obviously like John, because not only do they show
up for him, they listen to him too, and the grosbeak pair did exactly that.
These birds were below the first tower, about half way down the switchbacks
when we saw them.



We finished up with a closer look at the evening grosbeaks under clearing
skies as we headed back to the car, when the flock had conveniently moved
further west along the trail. Red crossbills for King County, the other six
finches for both King and Chelan. A better study of the roadside flock on
the way back down the pass revealed pure pine siskin with no interlopers.



Delaying the return home, I headed back to Duvall for another try at the
Bohemian waxwing, and once again found the area around McCormick Park
waxwing-less. Unless someone can definitely tell me otherwise, I'm going to
draw a straight line between two points, declare the afternoons a waxwing
dead zone, and restrict my searches to the mornings from now on. The visit
did allow me to bask in the glorious afternoon sunlit warmth, and pick up
American goldfinch and some beautifully singing house finches to make it a
nine finch day.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland