We birded Manzanita Lake Saturday morning with beautiful but ominous looking clouds to the west and occasional thunder. By afternoon the clouds moved in followed by intense but short-lived showers, hale and lightning strikes within half a mile that interrupted lunch and setting up camp. As the showers tapered off we birded Hat Lake and Summit Lake.

By late afternoon the sky cleared and we were set for a restful night. However, at breakfast Sunday morning two tenters reported strange and frightful growling in the middle of the night. Was it a bear or just a deer as suggested by a few sympathetic souls? Older, half-deaf members of the group chalked it up to over active imaginations.

Sunday dawned cloudless, with mild temperatures, albeit a bit smokey. We birded Kings Creek Meadows and various turnouts almost to the Sulphur Works.

Now to birding. We tallied 59 species and most interestingly, 10 species were observed nesting. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers nested right in our camp site as probably did a pair of Evening Grosbeaks. We got excellent views of Pygmy Nuthatches at their nest holes at Manzanita Lake and of Black-backed Woodpeckers at Hat Lake. Red Modeen compiled the trip list (see below) and Ken Bachman supplied the photos.

All agreed that we should make this an annual event always inviting a neighboring Audubon group to join us. There’s nothing like a campout to build camaraderie.

Species Identified:
• Canada Goose   12
• Mallard   2
• Bufflehead   6
• Mountain Quail   2   heard
• Pied-billed Grebe   1
• Turkey Vulture   2
• Osprey   1
• Cooper’s Hawk   1
• Red-tailed Hawk   1
• American Coot   1
• Spotted Sandpiper   6+
• Wilson’s Snipe   2
• Common Nighthawk   4+
• Red-breasted Sapsucker   7   nesting
• Hairy Woodpecker   3
• White-headed Woodpecker   1
• Black-backed Woodpecker   4   nesting
• Northern Flicker (R/S)   2   nesting
• Pileated Woodpecker   2   nesting
• Western Wood-pewee   4   nesting
• Olive-sided Flycatcher   1   heard
• Hammond’s Flycatcher   2
• Dusky Flycatcher   1
• Impidonax Flycatcher (sp.)   1   see notes
• Ash-throated Flycatcher   1
• Warbling Vireo   1   nesting
• Gray Jay   1
• Steller’s Jay   6+
• Clark’s Nutcracker   12+
• Common Raven   3
• Tree Swallow   8+   nesting
• Violet-green Swallow   1+
• Mountain Chickadee   6+   nesting
• Red-breasted Nuthatch   2   nesting
• White-breasted Nuthatch   1
• Pygmy Nuthatch   4   nesting
• Brown Creeper   2
• American Dipper   1
• Mountain Bluebird   2
• Townsend’s Solitaire   2
• American Robin   4
• Orange-crowned Warbler   4
• Nashville Warbler   1
• Yellow Warbler   2
• Yellow-rumped Warbler   4+
• Wilson’s Warbler   2   heard
• Western Tanager   3
• Green-tailed Towhee   1   heard Sunday,   seen Thursday
• Chipping Sparrow   2
• Golden-crowned Sparrow   2   heard
• Dark-eyed Junco (OR.)   1+
• Black-headed Grosbeak   1
• Red-winged Blackbird   5+
• Brewer’s Blackbird   4+
• Brown-headed Cowbird   1
• Purple Finch   2
• Cassin’s Finch   4+ nesting
• Red Crossbill   2
• Evening Grosbeak   6+

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