Sherry and I hiked up to the ridge with a great view above Tatoosh Lake today. The wildflowers in the meadows were absolutely spectacular, better than Sunrise at Mt. Rainier that we had last week. We enjoyed large open hillside meadows with a sea of wildflower colors mixing from, yellow, red, orange, blue, white, and pink. And the best part is that we had them to ourselves for most of the day. It was also a great butterfly day. We had 17 Boisduval's Blues gathered together at a muddy seep and we saw 8 Margined Whites gathered together at another seep where the ground water runs. The one thing about this hike is that it is very steep. Elevation of 2900ft in 2.4 miles, this is why there is not a lot of people. The birding wasn't the best this time but we did see;

Turkey Vulture - 10 (in Packwood)
Bald Eagle
Sooty Grouse
Vaux's Swift
Rufous Hummingbird
Steller's Jay
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Townsend's Solitaire - 1 juvenile
Mountain Bluebird - 1 fly by
Varied Thrush
American Robin
Townsend's Warbler
Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Siskin

Dave Hayden
Centralia, WA
dtvhm AT nwrain.com