Subject: [Tweeters] Green Mountain in Kitsap Co., Hermit Warbler
Date: Jun 28 17:16:20 2010
From: Marcus Roening - Marcus.D.Roening at gsk.com


Hi Tweets,

On Sunday, Heather and I did a very sweet lowland 1000' hike to the top of Green Mountain (State Forest) in Kitsap County. It is about 20 minutes west of Bremerton as the crow flies, but much more circuitous by car. This is a multi-use area, which means hiker, mountain bikers and motorcycles on the trails, but we only had one motorcycle on Sunday and he was turning around because the trail was way to narrow. There are two access points, Wildcat Trail on the north side or Gold Creek on the SW corner. Or, you can drive to within a ? mile of the top, if you want to get there quick. The view from the top is quite striking with vistas over the entire Sound and over Hood Canal & the Olympics from the other side.

At the top we had killer views of Townsend's Warblers singing at the top of the trees, which meant eye level from the vista - a very nice way to view warblers. Since Hermit Warblers also occur in the area, we played a song twice and in popped the most stunning hybrid Townsend's X Hermit Warbler I have ever seen. The head down portion was as dramatic a Townsend's as I've ever seen with bright yellow and heavy streaking going at least ? of the way down the body. The back was green with heavy dark streaks. The best part though was the head. With the exception of about 3 little black feathers on the back of the crown on the median line, the entire rest of the head was bright yellow - it was a striking bird.

About .5 miles from the top down the Gold Creek Trail, we had a singing Hermit Warbler. Look for a power line cut where there is a bench and a view of the lake. The warbler was about 100 yds. Below the bench.

Lots of birds were singing:
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
Warbling Vireo
Common Yellowthroat
MacGillivray's Warbler
DE Junco
Willow Flycatcher
Pacific Slope Flycatcher

The lower part of the trail goes through a beautiful canyon and if you take the forest access road it runs along a beautiful set of marsh land created by multiple beaver dams.

The Green Mountain State Forest website has directions and a printable trail map .pdf file.

Good Birding,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma WA

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