Post by Dave on Oct 6, 2007 17:23:21 GMT -8
Hello all,
Brent, Thor, Gord, Dave, John, and I went for hike up Needle Peak today. Our goal was to find ptarmigan when they were white, not brown/white. We failed on our mission, but still had a good time.
We started the trail in a little sprinkling of snow. We were semi-ready for snow, just not ready for the 3-4 feet deep snow to come! Walking through the Cedar forest for the first 30 minutes started our list off with Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Varied Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. Pine Grosbeak and Oregon Junco were soon added to the list as we moved up to mixed forest, predominately Hemlock. After the 1 hour "Grouse Grind", we leveled off. The snow was deep, but there was little wind and visibility was decent. A Cassin's Finch was a great addition to the list.
We started looking at tracks in the snow. Some Grouse tracks led Gord off into the bushes for awhile. Snowshoe Hare tracks were all over the place.
As we continued to climb up, things were looking a little more "intense". The snow was getting deeper yet, and the wind was picking up.
The "picking up" wind was soon a full force gail as we broke into the alpine section. Where did the leader go? Visibility was lacking, you might say. Birding conditions were not quite at prime at this point.
Well, we were in Ptarmigan country, but thought it wise not to spread out looking for tracks as we had planned to do....what tracks would there be in this wind anyway? This lead to some discussion as to whether press on higher or retreat back into the sheltered woods. As dedicated diehards, we decided to press on...only to turn around 10 minutes later as it became even more clear that finding little white birdies in this blizzard was going to require a miracle. So, we headed back down the ice-covered rock plateaus that were so beautiful one month before.
Gord found some clear ptarmigan tracks near a cluster of bushes shortly after we began our decent. This lead to some random "sinking up to your crotch" type ptarmigan searching, but eventually we found our ways back to the 'trail' and continued down the mountain.
Once we were in the trees again, the pleasant "winter" scene returned again. A dark raven flew by giving us at least 1 bird to look at briefly. As we descended the mountain, we again searched through kinglet, chickadee, and nuthatch flocks.
Entertainment was provided between bird flocks.
On the way down, Gord picked out a Three-toed Woodpecker. Thor and Brent had staked out Horned Larks and 3 Mountain Bluebirds at the bottom as well.
Thanks for the good day, fellow birders! I appreciated your good spirits even though we missed our goal and cut the day short by several hours.
Dave
P.S. 2 Pictures as an addition. One was take Sept 3, 2007 and the other Oct 6, 2007. This is the same trail, in a similar area of the trail, looking west.
Sept. 3, 2007
October 6, 2007
Brent, Thor, Gord, Dave, John, and I went for hike up Needle Peak today. Our goal was to find ptarmigan when they were white, not brown/white. We failed on our mission, but still had a good time.
We started the trail in a little sprinkling of snow. We were semi-ready for snow, just not ready for the 3-4 feet deep snow to come! Walking through the Cedar forest for the first 30 minutes started our list off with Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Varied Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. Pine Grosbeak and Oregon Junco were soon added to the list as we moved up to mixed forest, predominately Hemlock. After the 1 hour "Grouse Grind", we leveled off. The snow was deep, but there was little wind and visibility was decent. A Cassin's Finch was a great addition to the list.
We started looking at tracks in the snow. Some Grouse tracks led Gord off into the bushes for awhile. Snowshoe Hare tracks were all over the place.
As we continued to climb up, things were looking a little more "intense". The snow was getting deeper yet, and the wind was picking up.
The "picking up" wind was soon a full force gail as we broke into the alpine section. Where did the leader go? Visibility was lacking, you might say. Birding conditions were not quite at prime at this point.
Well, we were in Ptarmigan country, but thought it wise not to spread out looking for tracks as we had planned to do....what tracks would there be in this wind anyway? This lead to some discussion as to whether press on higher or retreat back into the sheltered woods. As dedicated diehards, we decided to press on...only to turn around 10 minutes later as it became even more clear that finding little white birdies in this blizzard was going to require a miracle. So, we headed back down the ice-covered rock plateaus that were so beautiful one month before.
Gord found some clear ptarmigan tracks near a cluster of bushes shortly after we began our decent. This lead to some random "sinking up to your crotch" type ptarmigan searching, but eventually we found our ways back to the 'trail' and continued down the mountain.
Once we were in the trees again, the pleasant "winter" scene returned again. A dark raven flew by giving us at least 1 bird to look at briefly. As we descended the mountain, we again searched through kinglet, chickadee, and nuthatch flocks.
Entertainment was provided between bird flocks.
On the way down, Gord picked out a Three-toed Woodpecker. Thor and Brent had staked out Horned Larks and 3 Mountain Bluebirds at the bottom as well.
Thanks for the good day, fellow birders! I appreciated your good spirits even though we missed our goal and cut the day short by several hours.
Dave
P.S. 2 Pictures as an addition. One was take Sept 3, 2007 and the other Oct 6, 2007. This is the same trail, in a similar area of the trail, looking west.
Sept. 3, 2007
October 6, 2007
I look forward to future trips!