Today Jim Pruske and I birded from the Wynoochee River valley to
Schouweiler
as the weather remained mostly cloudy with partial sun breaks at times
for
most of the day.

We started the day at Brady Loop Rd. where we tallied 37 species
including:

1 RING NECKED PHEASANT (male)
1 AMERICAN KESTREL (male)
1 COMMON SNIPE
1 DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT flying over
2 VARIED THRUSH
5 WOOD DUCKS
SAVANAH SPARROWS
CLIFF SWALLOWS

Next, we tried Friends Landing where we tallied 33 species for this area
including:

1 CASPIAN TERN
12 GREATER SCAUP
1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
1 RUFFED GROUSE
6 NORTHERN ROUGH WINGED SWALLOWS
1 HERMIT THRUSH
VARIED THRUSH (many)
PURPLE FINCHES

With rain clouds in the distance, we pushed onward up the Wynoochee
River
valley, stopping in various places, until the pavement ran out and the
dirt
road began. We tallied 33 species along the road which included:

1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS
1 BLUE GROUSE
1 FOX SPARROW
1 TURKEY VULTURE
1 HUTTON'S VIREO
CHESTNUT BACKED CHICKADEE (small flock)

The rains had finally caught up to us at Montesano. On the drive by, we
had,
1 OSPREY on the nest site.

Our last and most unproductive stop was at Schouweiler. We arrived just
when
a light drizzle of rain started to fall. It soon became an all out rain
storm.
We did manage to get soak n' wet and 19 species in 15 minutes,
including:

1 TURKEY VULTURE
2 OSPREY
1 COMMON SNIPE
1 AMERICAN KESTREL (Female)
1 BALD EAGLE (imm) being harrassed by an Osprey

We headed back home making one stop in downtown Olympia to pick
something up.
We added 3 more species to our final tally, (PINE SISKEN, BUSHTIT, and
SCRUB JAY), ending the day with 67 species.

Dave Hayden