Hi Tweeters,

Yesterday Bill and I spent the day hiking in the Teanaway area.
We went up Stafford Creek trail as far as the pass just west of Navaho Peak.
The trail starts at about 3000 feet and ends at 6000, so you get a nice
variety of birding habitats along the way. The weather was perfect and we
had good views of a number birds. As we started off in the cool of the
morning, we were surrounded by bird song-various warblers, thrushes, Winter
Wren, Dusky Flycatcher, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Chipping Sparrow, and the
like. All the way from bottom to top we were surrounded by many hundreds of
Evening Grosbeaks. I guess these birds must be eating Spruce Budworms that
have infested many of the trees in the Teanaway drainage. There were also
large numbers of Pine Siskins and Western Tanagers. I know they normally
live in this habitat, but I wonder if they take advantage of the budworms
too.

Notable, along the edge of a bog at the 5600' level, was a female Northern
Three-toed Woodpecker. We were eating lunch in the shade of some trees
alongside a bog, and the bird flew up to the tree right next to me and
started tapping on something, I edged around to see it better and saw it was
the skull of a fox-sized mammal that had been nailed to the tree by some
previous campers. I couldn't tell whether the bird was just tapping because
the skull resonated well, or whether it was actually eating chunks of the
skull. Up near the pass we had good looks at an Olive-sided Flycatcher. As
we descended we also heard it singing its "Hic-three-bears" song loud and
clear. From the pass, by the way, you get wonderful views of parts of the
Stuart Range.

Finally, as we trudged quietly back to the trailhead through the forest
which had now become quite warm (and we were quite tired), Bill spotted a
Black Bear on the trail in front of me. He said something like "Look it's a
bear," but even as he spoke the bear hurtled itself off the side of the
trail into the underbrush! I only got a glimpse of its cinnamon back. Bill
commented that it was a small bear so we should keep moving in case its
mother was close at hand! So we did, but the cub and its mother were gone.


All in all this made for a memorable hike in terms of the birds, scenery,
and the bear. Happy birding, Charlotte Byers, Seattle