On Saturday, Sherry and I hiked up to Surprise Lake, about a 7 mile hike in on the east side of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. We started at Conrad Meadows, which is at the end of forest road 1000. This large meadow was very birdy. As we left the meadow, the way turned to forest. It was here that we saw a Snowshoe Hare cross the trail. As we continued our hike, we encountered several more meadows before returning to the forest for most of the duration of the hike. Birds seen, mostly in the meadow areas were;

Rufous Hummingbird 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Western Wood-Pewee 3
Warbling Vireo 1
Gray Jay 7
Steller's Jay 2
Common Raven 1
Mountain Chickadee 2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Brown Creeper 1
Pacific Wren 2
American Dipper 1
Hermit Thrush 3
American Robin 4
Varied Thrush 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Townsend's Warbler 9
Chipping Sparrow 10
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Western Tanager 5
Lazuli Bunting 11
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Pine Siskin 18
Evening Grosbeak 7

Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA