Tuesday morning on a hike up the Rattlesnake Ridge trail from the trailhead at I-90 exit 27, we saw a female Hermit Warbler in the clearcut about a mile up the trail. The warbler flew into a cedar tree by the trail as I was attempting to photograph a Warbling Vireo, but moved around too quickly for me to get any clear photos. We also saw two Northern Pygmy Owls about 3 miles up the trail. One was making a single call note every minute or so. It responded to a whistled imitation by flying in and perching about 40' up and directly overhead in a Doug fir - not a great angle for photos, but we took a few. After a few minutes another owl flew in, and one or both of them made a call I hadn't heard before, a quick series of soft hoots "tutututututututututututututu", slightly lower in pitch than the usual call note and followed by a single regular hoot. They also sat for several minutes side by side on the same branch and appeared to spar or groom each other with their beaks.

Ebird checklist with a few photos at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14112428

Brian Pendleton
kc7wpd at hotmail.com
Auburn, WA