Dear Tweets,
I should have posted this sooner, but Lonnie's post about WWCR in Esmeralda Basin prompted me to write. Last month on a backpacking trip down the Middle Fork of the Pasayten River (trail starts just below Slate Peak and heads north) we saw WWCR on 4/5 days we were out. They were in the basin below Slate Pass, and up by Ferguson, Fred and Doris Lakes. The spruce cones are masting this year so there is plenty of food for them. I had only seen WWCR once before during the summer in the North Cascades, but this year they seem to be wherever the spruce cones are abundant!
Our first night out was the lightning storm that ignited the Cedar Creek and Delancey Fires nearby (I think July 11).
Good birding,
Peter Wimberger
Tacoma

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