[birding] mary's peak

[rich armstrong]

1. cheryl whelchel, nanette & i ventured up mary's peak at about 745 this morning. it was very cold and the upper parking was in the fog.
2. we ran into doug robinson who had just a little earlier seen a NORTHERN GOSHAWK. we searched in the forest hoping it might try to catch 1 of the 100 evening grosbeaks we were seeing, but no luck.
3. we had flocks of chestnut-backed chickadees and 1 small flock of RED CROSSBILLS in that area.
4. then despite the fog and cold we headed for the top. there were no birds at all except a couple ravens.
5. back down at the parking lot we found a flock of bluebirds. since doug told us that he had seen the female cassin's finch yesterday with bluebirds we checked the flock. amazingly there was a female CASSIN'S FINCH with the flock of maybe 10-12 western bluebirds. 3rd time was the charm! she followed the bluebirds around the meadow from tree to ground to another tree as we watched for maybe 15-20 minutes. mostly they were in the meadow just west of the top parking lot.
6. we saw no grouse or quail but we tried.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978
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