Hello fellow tweeters!

Today I finally went up to Sunrise, in Mt Rainier National Park, in order
to see some nice birds and hopefully get some good photos. I was successful
on both! To start off the good birds, a Sooty Grouse was hanging out on the
side of the road heading up to Sunrise. This was a long overdue county bird
for me, and I ended up getting better views of another one later! My first
stop after getting out of the car was the picnic area. This had had some
of the best passerine sightings anywhere around Sunrise, at least in my
experience. And today didn't disappoint, with fantastic views of
"Slate-colored" Fox Sparrows, including at least two juveniles! Chipping
Sparrows were also observed in good numbers, though no juveniles were seen.

Next I went off and made my way to Shadow Lake, where I looped up to Frozen
Lake and back to the picnic area. On the way to Shadow Lake, Juncos were
seen with very new young ones. Clark's Nutcrackers were seen here too,
including one possible juvenile begging for food. Other common upland birds
were seen, and one major highlight was a GREATER YELLOWLEGS foraging on the
shore of Shadow Lake. This is the first ebird record of this species at the
Sunrise hotspot, so definitely a good find. Also seen was a male Western
Tanager, my first for Sunrise. Heading back from the Frozen Lake area 4
Mountain Bluebirds were seen.

For the day I had 18 bird species, and also had close encounters with
Black-tailed Deer, Hoary Marmot, and Cascade Golden-mantled Ground
Squirrel! Checklist can be found here :

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38238946

Christopher Clark
Sumner, WA