Subject: [Tweeters] Ptarmigan at Paradise (Mt. Rainier)
Date: Jun 28 18:23:22 2015
From: Stefan Schlick - greenfant at hotmail.com


Casey Cunningham and I started the hike up to Panorama Point (Paradise, Mt. Rainier) via the Golden Gate Trail at around 6:30am Saturday morning and immediately found 2 White-tailed Ptarmigan just above the confluence with the Skyline Trail. One bird pretty much entirely white, the other - banded - bird much further along in its molt. See pictures at my blog at https://birdmeister.wordpress.com. A single Gray-crowned Rosy-finch flew over us in the same area. Overall, it was very slow compared to Dave Hayden's trip a few days ago. Beware of the hordes that typically show up after about 10am.
>From there we headed over to Mt. Adams. We could not find any Spruce Grouse in the Keene Horse Camp area, but the habitat looks excellent. A few Lincoln's Sparrows were singing at the Muddy Meadows Trailhead.
This Sunday morning, we found 3 Black-backed Woodpeckers at the lava dome along FR2329 just past Takh Takh Meadows towards Takhlakh Lake.
At Trout Lake, we noted 2 pairs of Western Kingbirds along Lake Rd (just 200yrs north of 141). At Trout Lake marsh at the end of Lake Rd, there were no less than 6 Gray Catbirds in the middle of the day.
The Black-and-white Warbler failed to appear during the hour we tried for it mid afternoon.
Stefan SchlickHillsboro, OR