I'd never have found these three Mountain Goats if they had not started a small rock slide with nearly every step. This is on the slope of the cirque where Rock Wrens are sometimes found.
Last night Bruce Labar called me to let me know he had located a Calliope Hummingbird Selasphorus calliope on the Huckleberry Creek Trail out of Sunrise at Mt. Rainier, and so I changed my birding plans for the day to go chase. This is also the area where a huge rock cirque is located where Rock Wrens Salpinctes obsoletus have been being found just since last summer. With a "two-first-county-bird" possibility for me, it was an easy, choice.
I decided to get up early and was at the trailhead by 7 AM. Near the parking lot this early Mountain Bluebirds Sialia currucoides were actively flying around, and I managed a photo of this apparent juvenile.
Dark-eyed Juncos were everywhere, with many of the birds being juveniles, but I got a photo of this adult male.
Once on Huckleberry Creek Trail the terrain became much steeper and my eyes remained mostly at my feet when I was moving to keep from slipping, but it was a wonderful walk. This is a little used trail, and I met no other hikers on the trail.
These small orange butterflies were all around, and I think it is a Hydaspe Fritillary Speyeria hydaspe. Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong in the identification.
Once I got to the cirque I sat to wait and see if I would be able to hear or see a Rock Wren. Very shortly one sang its unique mimic-like song from the shaded hillside behind me. I never got to see it, but another bird sang from far across the cirque on my way back out.
After this I headed to try for the Calliope Hummingbird. I found the place, about 1/3 mile past the cirque where there are just beginning to be trees, and where a spectacular meadow of heather with a few other flowers was in full bloom. After about 45 minutes wait, I located a female/immature Calliope Hummingbird perched at about 30 meters distance on a short tree. I got good looks, noting very small size, solid green back, lack of rufous flanks, wing length equal to tip of tail, and very short thin bill for a hummer. I did not have a gorget that I could see but I had a mostly back-side view. As I reached for my camera it took flight, and flew high up on the hillside and out of site, not to return, so no photos. Bummer.
While I waited a first-of-year Townsend's Solitaire Myadestes townsendi flew in an perched not too far away. A juvenile Clark's Nutcracker also flew overhead calling.
On the walk out I got to relax and enjoy the vistas.
View of Mt. Rainier from the Huckleberry Creek Trailhead.
View of the cirque where I found the Rock Wren.
On the drive home I made a bonus stop at the 134th Street wet spot in Puyallup, where I found this Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos, another county FOY species for me, and I was able to call Bruce and make a down-payment on getting him a good bird for all the great ones he finds for me and others.
Overall a spectacular day of birding for me. 2 Pierce County lifetime first species, the ROWR and the CAHU, and 5 more FOY county species. Tough to do at this time of year, though my first big mountain day of the summer made it possible.
Good birding. Steem on! Be sure to follow 