Subject: Kennedy Creek Estuary, Mason County, Wash.
Date: Aug 18 18:02:38 2001
From: Douglas Canning - dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org


Date: August 18, 2001
Location: Kennedy Creek Estuary, Mason County, Washington

Temperature: 24 degrees celsius
Wind direction: W
Prevailing wind speed: 1-5 km/h gusting to: 6-11 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 90%
Precipitation: none

Here observing between 1525 and 1700 while the tide rose from 6.7' to
12.5' as predicted for the Burns Point gage. The gulls and terns were
more mobile today than usual, frequently moving between Kennedy Creek
estuary, inner Oyster Bay, and Schneider Creek estuary. The gull and
tern census numbers represent the maximum number counted for a
species.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1 [1]
Mallard 45 [2]
Semipalmated Plover 3 [3]
Killdeer 2 [4]
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Least Sandpiper 35
Dunlin 3 [5]
Bonaparte's Gull 190 [6]
Ring-billed Gull 260
Caspian Tern 35
American Crow 33 [7]

Footnotes:

[1] Flushed to Schneider Creek estuary.
[2] Flushed to Schneider Creek estuary.
[3] 2 juveniles, 1 adult, feeding on mud flats.
[4] Feeding on tide flats; retreated to high salt marsh on rising of
tide.
[5] Winter plumage.
[6] 10% in late breeding plumage; remainder in winter plumage.
[7] Foraging on tide flats at mouth of estuary.

Total number of species seen: 12

This report archived at http://birdnotes.net


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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