Moneses Uniflora

Day 271: Moneses uniflora (commonly called "Wood Nymph" or "Single Delight") is described as comparatively rare in Mount Rainier National Park, information which came as rather a surprise to me because I have encountered it in a number of locations over my many years of hiking. Ignorant of its status, I didn't take GPS readings or make any particular notes-to-self, so now it's going to fall to Team Biota to reinvent the wheel, i.e., re-find it in undocumented locations. I don't know whether to be embarrassed or amused at the oversight, but never again will I walk past it with the same casual disregard, "Oh, there's that one again."

Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis Macularia

Day 217: While this was not a Life List sighting for me, the only other place I have ever observed Spotted Sandpipers was at Mystic Lake, elevation 5000' in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park, and that would have been at least thirty years ago. I found two today at the north end of Lake Mackintosh (Thurston County, WA). Their behaviour indicated that they might have been a nesting pair.

Sibley refers to this species as "uncommon but widespread," and shows the Cascade crest (approximately) at the junction of the year-'round range and the migratory route. Lake Mackintosh is only a few hundred feet above sea level and well west of the crest, so if this was indeed a nesting pair, this sighting is interesting from the standpoint of the species' phenology.