Subject: [Tweeters] Mt. Rainier Ptarmigans, etc & sundry stuff
Date: Aug 19 16:58:06 2009
From: wheelermombi at comcast.net - wheelermombi at comcast.net




Hi Tweeters,


I had a very close encounter with a mother WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN with 3 chicks (about 2/3 adult-size) this morning on Mt. Rainier.? These birds have probably been mentioned on Tweeters recently (I've been surfing the subject headings for Tweeters for the past month or so without opening most of them, but I've noticed several ptarmigan entries, so this is probably just a follow up to others' sightings).? I arrived at the park very early this morning, before the crowds and the heat (both of whom showed up eventually) and hiked up to the higher Skyline Trail.? Just beyond the last switchback to the left on the way to Panorama Point, I came across the 3 chicks taking a dust bath, with the hen calling a little distance up-slope.? I stopped to watch.? After a few minutes, 1 of the chicks spotted me and began to walk toward me, and the other chicks followed with the hen calling and soon approaching as well.? I hadn't made a sound or tried to attract them in any way.? I felt like I was back on my farm as a child getting ready to feed the chickens.? A couple of them came within 2 feet of me (I never noticed that they had red eyelids before).? After a minute or so, they lost interest and began to wander down-slope of the trail.



I was surprised to find a PRAIRIE FALCON hunting over 1 of the meadows, a little?down-slope of the?turn-off for the lower Skyline Trail.? I had never seen this species there before.? It made a lame attempt at an A. PIPIT without even coming close.? On the way down, I saw a juvenile COOPER'S HAWK.? Finally, as I was passing the talus slope (in which pika can usually be found) near the bottom of Skyline Trail on my return, I came across a number of passerines mobbing a N. PYGMY OWL high up in a stand of firs.



On a total side note, I recently spent a mostly non-birding vacation with my family on O'ahu, although I did take off for 3 days of hiking and birding on Kaua`i with my son (Deyland).? I still managed to see?50+ species, and, on O`ahu,?located a reliable (at least for this time of the year) spot for BROWN BOOBIES as well as other locations for RED-FOOTED BOOBIES (with a very lucky?fly by?from 2 MASKED BOOBIES; I found that one can really embarrass one's 14 year old daughter by talking in public about having had a 3 booby day) and a host of other species.? On Kaua`i, we managed to find all but 2?of the extant endemic species of forest birds as well as several of the indigenous waders and pelagic species.? We also saw numerous green sea turtles and 2 Hawaiian monk seals.? If anyone is planning to go to either island soon, feel free to contact me privately for specific locations and species.



Finally, I also took a road trip with my son to S. California, primarily to bird the area north of L.A.? We?spent a day on Santa Cruz Island and saw a number of the endemic ISLAND SCRUB-JAYS, making me a very happy man.? On another day, we went on a whaling cruise and saw several blue and humpback whales and a pod of an estimated 2,000 common dolphins; probably the best wildlife experience of my life.? The birding there was great; one of my favorite experiences is to go hiking in an area where all of the common bird species are different than those with which I am familiar.??After a lot of searching, we also located a couple of YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIES in a county park (Los Alamos) about an hour north of Santa Barbara.? If anyone is planning on travelling to that region, I'll be happy to pass on the locations for the various species that we saw there as well.



Good birding,

Lonnie Somer

Olympia, WA

wheelermombi at comcast.net