Hi folks,

Appreciate all the support in my recent travails. I was so distressed that
I took the day off from work for a morning of home repair jobs. Then,
being's it was reported that we'd only had 2" of rain since midnight, I
went for a canoe ride.

I put in at the Vance Creek bridge, just south of the Elma airport, at
about noon. There were about 10 Tundra Swans in one of the borrow
pits at the County park. The creek parallels Wenzel Slough Road for
about a mile and a half, then I turn back when the creek enters
"Huttula Lake", where the landowners lease waterfowl hunting rights.

The creek itself was running full and rising. It was still raining, so there
weren't a whole lot of birds out and active, but these few made their
appearance:

Pied-billed Grebes
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron - besides those feeding along the slough, there were
several feeding on field voles (Microtus sp.) out in
the fields in the WDFW/Ducks Unltd property.
California Gull
Ring billed Gull
Mew Gull
Coots
Canada Goose - all I saw were B.c. moffitti
Mallard
Pintail
American wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Wood Duck - 2 in Vance Creek
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Bald Eagle - 1 Adult
Red-tailed Hawk - probably 20 in the WDFW/DU fields!
Harrier
Cooper's Hawk - imm. female
Belted Kingfishers - several, never did get a gender on them....
Downy Woodpecker
Red-shafted Flicker
Steller's Jay
Crows - over 100 in area
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Winter Wren
Bewick's Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Robin
Red-winged Blackbird
Pine Siskin
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Oregon Junco
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
House Finch
Starlings

40 species isn't too bad for an afternoon in the pouring rain.

What piqued my interest was the numbers of Microtus voles that were
evident in the fields. The water rose about 4" between noon and dark
and the voles were out in the open in the fields. Which likely accounts
for all the hawks and crows and herons working the fields. I didn't see
any owls (got back to the pickup about a hour after sunset...) but there
were *lots* of owl pellets in the 'mouse fields'.

Saw a dozen nutria (Myocastor coypus) in the creek/slough, which
excited my dog (yeah, I know.... a Northwesterner and a Chesapeake
Retriever and neither one of them have enough sense to get in out of
the rain.....) to the point of nearly capsizing the canoe!

Hope everyone on the list has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family
and friends. We do have a lot to be thankful for.....

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net