Mt Rainier as seen from First Burrows Mountain yesterday.
I got back yesterday from a 2-day trip to the Sunrise area of Mt. Rainier National Park. Ken and I planned to hike Tuesday up the Lake Eleanor trail to Grand Park, then go to Sunrise Campground to stay the night. We hoped to owl there Tuesday night and Wednesday be up really early to explore the campground and nearby trails for birds I need for my Pierce County and Ken needs for his Pierce and Washington year lists.
The first part of the hike to Grand Park was quiet except for large numbers of incessantly calling Red-breasted Nuthatches with good numbers of Canada Jays. We did manage to hear a calling Pine Grosbeak, but couldn't find it in the tops of the tall Douglas Fir trees despite a good effort.
Adult Male Pine finally saw on the way back down.
In the early part of the meadow we came onto a large flock of sparrows, juncos, and warblers that just kept flushing ahead of us as we moved forward. Many of the birds were juvenile sparrows, mostly Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, with at least some Song Sparrows, and likely Vesper Sparrows with a few we suspect may have been Brewer's Sparrows. Essentially all of these were constantly moving, flushing and very difficult to get adequate looks for identification. A humbling bit of birding, but fun.
At the park itself we stopped for lunch and a break. It was about 4.1 miles into our lunch stop, all uphill, and we relished the break. On the way down it was midday, the birds were much quieter, but we managed to find the best look at an uncommon bird of the day, a Pine Grosbeak seen at very close range eating huckleberries just off the trail.
Canada Jay
We drove to Sunrise where last Friday the ranger assured me that on a weekday getting a campground would be very likely as a same-day walk up request. I was not able to reserve the space more than 24 hours ahead, and couldn't book online or by phone, only in person. When we got there about 4 PM all the sites were taken. We drove back to the base of the entrance road at the drive in White River Campground where a site was available, set up camp, then drove back up to Sunrise to bird the area and wait until dark. Our primary reason for staying the night was to look for owls near the campground. We birded the parking lot, seeing good numbers of Mountain Bluebirds, Chipping Sparrows, Pine Siskins, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Cassin's Finches. Then we took the service road into the Campground and to Shadow Lake. There we waited for dark, and watched a Red Fox hunting near the lake.
Juvenile Gray-crowned Rosy Finch Leucosticte tephrocotis
Owling was a complete bust. Not a single bird seen or heard in an identifiable way in 2 hours of perfect conditions. It was brightly moonlit, there was no wind so it was perfectly quiet. Still no luck at all.
After a short night's sleep we got up and headed back up the mountain. On the early walk up to Frozen Lake we saw again good numbers of the same species we saw the night before in the parking lot, but no hoped for Nashville Warbler well enough to be confident of the ID. We saw at least 2 possible birds, but were not sure enough to list seeing them.
Juvenile Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina
At Frozen Lake the targeted species were Prairie Falcon and Northern Goshawk. We watched for an hour or so, and didn't see either, so headed up to First Burrows Mountain. On the walk up we had better luck. First Ken spotted a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch in the rocks just downhill from the trail in the rocky hillside feeding. On closer looks we found at least 13 GCRF there, both adults and juveniles.
This American Robin Turdus migratorius reminded us that there in almost nowhere this species does not thrive in.
Then shortly after a Prairie Falcon flew by oddly chased by a large flock of an estimated 60-80 birds. Prairie Falcons primarily hunt birds, but it was not clear if the smaller birds were chasing the PRFA away or what the dynamics were, but it was pretty cool. We think the flock was either Mountain Bluebirds or Gray-crowned Rosy Finches. No photos of this event.
Dark raptor, ? Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis
From here we continued to look for a previously seen White-tailed Ptarmigan just past the top of First Burows on the trail down to the campground. No luck on this, but we did see a dark hawk, probably a Red-tailed Hawk, but intrigued us as a possible Northern Goshawk in a tight glide.
Vesper Sparrow Pooecetes gramineus
After this we headed back to Frozen Lake for a bit more of a hawk watch, and only the Prairie Falcon obliged with another fly by. It seemed to be making a route that included flying by Frozen Lake. We had a nice chat with a young Texas birder named Christian at the lake. He was on his next-to-the-last day of a short WA birding trip, and it was fun to talk with him about his visit. He managed many of the NW specialties, but missed some too and we discussed strategies for finding some of them.
American Pika dragging food.
From here just back down the hill and the drive home only to listen to our Seattle Mariners get far behind the Astros in their game.
A nice trip, with about 20 miles of hiking in 2 days, so great exercise.
Good birding. Steem on!
