Hi Tweets,

It was a chancy day to hike on Mt. Rainier with a forecast of thunderstorms, but the mountain and wild flowers were calling. It was one of those wild weather days where we were alternately in and out of the inside of clouds.

Best bird of the day was a BAIRD'S SANDPIPER on Frozen Lake. Special thanks to Mike Charest who had seen one there on Saturday. We took the trail up First Burroughs Mountain and were rewarded with a family of pipits next to the trail. The parents were doing quite well in finding lots of insects for their 3 hungry kids.

At the top of the plateau we scanned through the 2 1/2 inch high Alpine Lupine and Gray's Lovage and found a HORNED LARK. While it is unlikely that it is the same birds, we have been successful in finding them here for the past 10 years. The juveniles look so dramatically different than the adults - they look more like a shorebird with their cream spangles on a brown background.

At 2nd Burroughs our reward was the triumvirate of "rock sandpikas" (a bit of a stretch). Since the clouds had completely descended, we enjoyed the antics of the Townsend's Chipmunk, it's portlier cousin the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel and a Pika. These dainty members of the rabbit family, were already in full gear gathering 'hay' in the talus slopes in preparation for winter.

No chickens or Rosy Finches to report.

Good Birding,
Sent from my iPad

Marcus Roening,
Tacoma. WA
C: 253-988-8313
Marcus.d.roening at gsk.com