Hello, tweeters.

Just wanted to report a morning at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge,
08:45-12:15, complete overcast and SW breeze, first raindrops started just
as we were leaving. Numbers include birds heard. Lots of signs of spring
in the bird population - singing, nest prospecting, migration.

Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 7
Canada Goose 30 (incl several prs of Dusky and one Aleutian)
Wood Duck 3
Green-winged Teal 50
Mallard 20
Northern Pintail 4
Cinnamon Teal 12
Northern Shoveler 40
Gadwall 6
American Wigeon 24
Ring-necked Duck 6
Bufflehead 60
Hooded Merganser 1
Common Merganser 6
Red-breasted Merganser 10
Bald Eagle 10
Northern Harrier 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
California Quail 1
Virginia Rail 2
American Coot 30
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Western Sandpiper 10
Dunlin 10
Common Snipe 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 15
Caspian Tern 30 (courtship feeding)
Band-tailed Pigeon (2 on other side of McAllister Creek, thus not in NNWR)
Great Horned Owl 1
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1 (excavating hole at first river overlook)
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Tree Swallow 50
Violet-green Swallow 20
N. Rough-winged Swallow 3
Cliff Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 5
unidentified swallow 50
Steller's Jay 1 (as Band-tailed Pigeon)
American Crow 30
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Bewick's Wren 1
Marsh Wren 25
American Robin 30
European Starling 40
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 40 (3-4 Myrtle for every Audubon's)
Common Yellowthroat 25
Savannah Sparrow 6
Song Sparrow 25
Golden-crowned Sparrow 20
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 10
Pine Siskin 1

also one Eastern Cottontail and one Eastern Gray Squirrel - go to your local
national wildlife refuge to see the introduced mammals!

Dennis Paulson