Congratulations on finally catching up with one of the tougher birds on the state to pin down reliably. I wonder if time of day might help predict when the ptarmigan are more likely to be near the lookout. It was also 1:30 when we saw ptarmigan there last week. It may be that their daily foraging brings them within view of the lookout about this time. This was the time I saw them at the lookout last year too. Or perhaps this family's territory is generally within a few hundred yards of the lookout.

Bob

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 18, 2012, at 8:34 PM, Mike Blue <michaelrblue at comcast.net> wrote:

> After 10 years of annual August trips to Mt Rainier I finally saw a White-tailed Ptarmigan. There was an adult and a chick just downslope from the Mt Fremont Lookout near Sunrise today around 1:30 this afternoon. A flock of ~8 Gray-Crowned Rosy Finches flew in for a brief period also, another bird I've been looking for for quite awhile too. A pika grazing nearby was also fun to see. The only other birds seen was 1 Clark's Nutcracker and a very brief view of an Accipiter sp.
> Mike Blue
> miblu at uw.edu
> Renton,Wa
>
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