[birding] Re: Mary's Peak Revisited

[willwright26 at q.com]

     Anyone who took my advice to visit Mary's Peak this morning is probably sorely disappointed.  There has been a change in the weather (it does that up there every few minutes).  Fog, heavy mist, tree drip, some wind gusts, 50 degrees on top.  Consequently, the birds were pretty quiet, too.

     I hate eating crow, but I should be used to the taste, I have to do it so often.  In all fairness, the weather didn't give me a decent shot at finding a Townsend's up there.  I did find the Hermits using two distinct songs (both are on the CD).  I even heard one bird switch from one song to the other.  Most of the time the Hermits are doing Zeedle, Zeedle, ZEE, Chu, or sometimes Zeedle, Zeedle, ZEE Chee.  The other song is a fast, stuttering duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, DEE.  The alternate song is the one I took for the Townsend's.  It seemed to have that higher pitched sound that I associate with Townsend's.

     I made stops at the same set of listening locations I used yesterday, plus a few more.  I picked up some more species, especially at the Hwy 34 hairpin that looks at a clearcut (below the Mary's Peak Rd.).  The clearcut had a family of Hairys playing on the stumps, MacGillivray's Warbler, House Wren, Willow Flycatcher, and Song Sparrow.
     At the junction of 34/Mary's Peak Rd. Western Tanager was heard.
     Strangely, today an Orange-crowned was near the summit, and on the boulders surrounding the parking lot was a pair of Western Bluebirds.  No grouse, and a number of other birds from yesterday not heard or seen.

---Will
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