Subject: FW: Nisqually Sunday (fwd)
Date: Apr 6 08:23:11 1998
From: Tom Foote - footet at elwha.evergreen.edu



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From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney[SMTP:festuca at olywa.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 1998 7:07 PM
To: 'tweeters at u.washington.edu'
Subject: Nisqually Sunday

Hi folks,

I spent the morning (who set that clock ahead, anyway...?) walking the loops at
Nisqually NWR with Tom Foote, Jim Pruske, and Jerry Smith. We missed
connections with Eric Kraig (a victim of the PDT/PST morning?) We'd have
*gladly* shared the morning with Russell Rogers, but he bagged out (presumably,
he spent the morning trying to figure out if it was "spring forward-fall back" or
"spring back and fall down"...:-) )

A beautiful sunny morning, and it didn't rain on us until we got back to the parking
lot at noon. The tide was pretty well out, so the gulls and peeps were mostly 'way
out on the mudflats. We saw:

Common Loon - 'way out there ("sure, you saw it, Jon....")
Double-crested Cormorants
Horned Grebe - several in breeding plumage!
Canada Goose - mostly moffitti, but a darker one (dusky?) and a couple
domestic hybrids..
Black Brant - 'way out past the mudflats
Mallard
Gadwall
Pintail
Green-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Shoveller
Wood Duck - 2 landed in alder snag 60' above McAllister Creek
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Ring-necked Duck - I saw 4 back-lit by the sun - "sure, they were...."
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser - female
Red-tailed Hawks (including a *very* dark imm. western red-tail -
Tom said *not* a Harlan's)
N Harrier
Merlin - on outer dike - seen by Jim
Peregrine - seen by Jim along river below I-5 bridge
Bald Eagles (several - at least 9)
Am. Coot
Glaucous-winged Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Mew Gull
Caspian Tern - 1 along Nisqually River
Killdeer - a pair was doing a *great* 'broken-wing display'; no nest seen...
Dunlin
Greater Yellowlegs - 3 along McAllister Creek
Belted Kingfisher - including one below the McAllister Cr nest-hole
Rufous Hummingbird - jewels in the morning sun!
Pileated Woodpecker - 1 along McAllister Cr
Red-shafted Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Red-breasted Sapsucker - cleaning out a hole in a large cottonwood snag
Violet-green Swallow
Tree Swallow
N Rough-winged Swallow - near Kingfisher burrow on McAllister Creek
Crow
Steller's Jay - on west side of McAllister Creek
Robins
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren - in cottonwoods along river
Marsh Wrens - *everywhere*, and noisy!
Black-capped Chickadee
Common Yellowthroat
"Myrtle" Warbler
"Audubon's" Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow (including one with a *white* throat)
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
Starling

Wish we'd had Bill Tweit or some other gull expert with us, as we saw ('way out
there) a small gull, with lots of black in the wing tips, no "Bonaparte's" white in the
forewing. No good - we needed Russell's good 'scope! Also, along McAllister Creek,
we saw a *very* light 1st-winter gull; medium-to-large, bill dark (black?) and not
too heavy at the gonys, grayish-pinkish legs, whitish-gray primaries and mantle. I
wanted it to be a Iceland Gull, but.... :-)

Also saw about 20 Harbor Seals at the mouth of the river, a Townsend's Chipmunk
near the maintenance shed, and a white-faced old River Otter running through the
junk yard near that same shed toward the artesian pond.

What did I miss? Missed several things I thought certain we'd see. Didn't even
see a Junco, until I was taking my noon coffee at the Country Junction restaurant
at Hawk's Prairie. But, 56 species, an extra 'race', 3 mammals, and a great morning
with good folks.. Good way to start into Pacific Standard Time.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net