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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Tweeters,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We car camped at the Cascade Pass Trailhead 23 miles up the Cascade River Road from Marblemount on the North Cascade Highway. The morning dawned mostly clear and quite warm. Soon, we spotted Black Swifts high in sky between us and towering north flanks of Johannesburg Mountain. The dramatic north face of this peak rises more than a mile in one fantastically rugged slope, over-steepened by Pleistocene glaciers. These ramparts are just one of many such imposing mountainsides in the North Cascades. A number of small waterfalls make this a probable nesting site for Black Swifts. Over 20 years ago, Ellen and I camped here in midsummer and awoke to the chattering calls of Black Swifts wheeling, gliding, diving, and flapping about the cliffs and waterfall spray. I was entranced by the wild and rugged scene, punctuated by falling rock and ice thundering down steep couloirs. Indeed, avalanches descend down to below 3,000 feet elevation with such frequency that a mini glacier lies at the bottom, directly across from the trailhead. It is heavily crevassed; proving it is moving ice.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This was only our second visit here and the swifts were still here, though quiet now. The Black Swifts hung out within binocular view of the trailhead for more than an hour, then seemed to disappear. Several times I watched several of these birds together, one seeming to chase the other. I wondered if the juvenile bird had fledged and was perhaps after a free meal from their parent. These birds were too distant to ascertain if they were juveniles or adults, though. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If you want a chance to see these birds in this breathtaking setting, go now because they will be departing south very soon! Too, avoid the weekend because this is the very popular trailhead to Sahale Arm and traffic along the road was hectic on our Labor Day weekend visit.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Andy Stepniewski<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Yakima WA<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>