[birding] Mary's Peak 12/25

[howard bruner]

We wound up out of the valley soup and crossed a zone where the upper
limit of the cold air got serious and condensed into freezing fog and
rimed the boughs and fronds with tiny diamonds. The air above was warm
and fresh and full of the white winter sun so bright a squint made its
permanent home on my face.  The East Ridge trail welcomed us into balmy
soft as needles on a mountain forest trial hiking.  Red crossbills
worked the ground and deciduous tree edges of gaps.  I got the best
looks I have had in years of the greenish gold plumage and singular
bill architecture.  Further on, at the edge of the reprod and old
growth, chestnut-backs came to my squeaker and were followed by juncos,
towhees, and 2 fox sparrows.  They concentrated on the barestem vine
maples that elegantly emerge from the sea of salal on the
mountainside.  A red-breasted nuthatch tootled on high.  Winter wrens
clicked in several spots from the salal but I never laid eyes on them. 
This flank of the great mother of the coast range is one of my favorite
places on this earth.  The vibrant understory washes down steep slopes
swirling around the bases of mighty fir trees - in the peak of health
as well as standing dead and the downed, almost totally decayed, laid
across and against the living. 

We reach the avalanche chute on
the third switchback and enjoy some of the granitic bones that emerge 
from the soil before turning back - hopefully to beat the daylight down
the hill.  Old Indian Pipe stalks are apparent in several places as are
coral orchid stems and flower remnants from summer past.

On the
way out at the same edge of old and new forest we hit a moving flock of
varied thrush (perhaps 10 birds) that silently (with the exception of a
occasional cluck) watch us as we bump down the trail totally satisfied,
content, and pleasantly tired. The last vigorous sun beams from this
christmas day shine on the bare branches and glossy leaves of the
western Oregon experience. 		 	   		  
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