Tweeters,
?
Jan Sharkey and I led a WFO field trip to Sunrise at Mt. Rainier yesterday (Thursday).? The trip started with 3 Chestnut-backed Chickadees at the White River entrance, then 5 Vaux's Swifts and 2 American Dippers from the Fryingpan Creek bridge, and several Cassin's Finches at Sunrise Point and several more at the visitor center parking lot.
?
As mentioned in Carol Riddel's post, the White-tailed Ptarmigan on the Fremont Ridge trail were extremely obliging, with a minimum of 12 birds seen by our group.? They included a female with 2-3 fairly small chicks about one-third of the way out along the trail, a male and chick about 75-100 yds south of the lookout, and a group of 3 adult females, 1 adult male, and 3 chicks at the lookout.? These were life birds for at least half of our group, so the excitement level was high.? I can't imagine that ptarmigan viewing can ever get any better than this!
?
The hike produced plenty of other highlights as well, including a juvenile Northern Goshawk seen far beneath us on Sourdough Ridge (carrying 2 spotting scopes with us all day was worth it for this bird!); a Hermit Warbler seen in a mixed flock of juncos, Chipping Sparrows, Townsend's Warblers, and other species; a mixed flock of about 40+ Mountain Bluebirds, plus Yellow-rumped Warblers, several American Pipits, and Cedar Waxwings at Frozen Lake; and a lone Band-tailed Pigeon that flew over us on Sourdough Ridge.? Two Orange-crowned Warblers, a total of 7 Townsend's Warblers, several Western Tanagers, and a flock of 30 Evening Grosbeaks were also nice.? We ended the day with a total of 27 species.? Combined with a great group of participants, clear viewing of the mountain all day, and good weather, we couldn't have asked for a better field trip!
?
Gary Wiles
Olympia, WA
wilesharkey at yahoo.com