Sherry and I hiked the Skyline Trail today under cloudy skies and cool tempatures. We had 2 good birds for the day. First being a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and secondly, 4 WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. We started by going up the Golden Gate Trail, where we found DARK-EYED JUNCOS, SAVANNAH SPARROWS, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, VARIED THRUSHES, 60+ AMERICAN ROBINS, and 17 EVENING GROSBEAKS. We also had the Rough-legged Hawk on this trail. We saw the hawk fly in and perch. As we continued up the trail, the hawk flew away from us, but then came back towards us and perch in another tree. That gave us a good look at the underwings to confirm our ID. When we reached the top of Golden Gate and started on the Skyline Trail, the temps dipped on us. We continued on to and then along the Lower Skyline Trail. We checked for Ptarmigan, but none were found, so we had our lunch. It was here that we had a MERLIN fly over and disappear over the ridge, and then an AMERICAN PIPIT flew by. After we ate, it was onward up the trail. It was just before we reached the Pebble Creek Trail when we found 2 then 3 then 4 Ptarmigan. Three of them 80% to 90% white and the fourth a good 95% white. They came running over to us like we were old friends, just like the chicks did last August. We left them and continued back down to Paradise. Back at the parking lot we had GRAY JAYS, RAVENS, and CLARK NUTCRACKERS. Our last bird was a RED-TAILED HAWK in Paradise Valley.

Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA