Subject: White Birds: North meets South
Date: Nov 11 21:28:21 1996
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Spent the Veteran's Day holiday by canoeing at the mouth of the =
Nisqually River. High tide at 6:30am and low tide (mudflats) at about =
1230pm. =20

Perched within 30m of each other on logs at the mouth of the River were =
three (3) Snowy Owls!! Cool birds. They remained there from at least =
10am until dark, when one of them flew off to the east. They took no =
notice of me as I paddled within about 50m of them; neither crows nor =
gulls were bothering them.

At about 2pm, a Great/Common/American Egret flew from the mouth of the =
river to the south and over into Nisqually NWR. This is the first egret =
I've seen out there this fall - has it been around for a while?

Other birds I noted through the day were:
Common Loon
Red-breasted Loon - 1
Double-crested Cormorant
Brandt's Cormorant
Western Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Horned Grebe
Rhinoceros Auklet - 5 about 200m *up* from the mouth of the river!
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret - 1
Virginia Rail
Common and Red-breasted Mergansers
Mallard, Pintail, Am. Wigeon, GW Teal, Gadwall
Canada Goose
Surf and White-winged Scoter
Common and Barrow's Goldeneye and Bufflehead
Glaucous-winged, California, Mew and Bonaparte's Gulls
Bald Eagle
Merlins - at least 2 - a male and a female 'sparred' for a bit near the =
observation deck
Peregrine - 1 - off to the east
Sharp-shinned Hawk
N Harriers
Pileated Woodpecker, Red-shafted Flicker, Crow, House Finch, Starling =
(zillions), Marsh Wren, Meadowlark, Water Pipits
Dunlin, Long-billed (?) Dowitcher, Least Sandpiper
And, probably lots of stuff I didn't see or write down.

Canoeing is definitely the way to see the Nisqually Delta - especially =
when the NWR is closed to foot traffic during the winter! There were a =
(very) few kayaks out on the water, too, but only one came in near the =
mouth of the river, and I think that they were scoping-out the Snowys. =
Lots of neat stuff out there - the Chiloe Aster and Gumweed is still =
blooming, dragonflies are still flying. You'd hardly know that it was =
November.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net