Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I birded the Nisqually NWR from 3:15pm-6pm, mainly
covering the lower portion from the Twin Barns, and Visitor Center areas,
including a short walk along the boardwalk towards the Nisqually River Loop
Trail. The main highlight was the LEWIS' WOODPECKER located immediately upon
our arrival just north of the west parking lot, as it foraged in a live Big
Leaf Maple tree, then foraged within that same tree, and in a smaller
cluster of associating trees above the wetland boardwalk, at the base of the
Twin Barns/McAllister Creek trailheads. The bird was also observed in
another grove of Big Leaf Maple trees to the east of the west boardwalk,
then even later at 5:45pm the bird was noted along the boardwalk towards the
Nisqually River Loop trail, so this bird wanders widely, within the general
Visitor Center area, but during our visit was not being harassed by the many
nesting pairs of European Starlings, as noted by earlier observers.
Hopefully the bird will continue its saty at the refuge, as this is a
quality western WA bird, being "our" first, and a quality Thurston County
species, despite several records for the county, even one or more from this
location.

We also managed to scope the vast flooded fields just to the south of the
Twin Barns, and to north and west of the Visitor Centor, where good numbers
of shorebirds and waterfowl were noted, and a immature PEREGRINE FALCON that
was observed flushing and scattering only the shorebirds during a 15 minute
period, before flying completely away, and only a small portion of the
shorebirds returning to the flooded fields.

Notable species during our evening visit during our extensive walk included:

4 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE
1 pair of Wood Ducks
1 pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL
27 Cinnamon Teal
2 Am.Kestrels
1 Greater Yellowlegs
2 LESSER YELLOWLEGS
1 SOLITARY SANDPIPER(SW corner of the Visitor Center wetland)
23 WESTERN SANDPIPERS
158 LEAST SANDPIPERS
47 Dunlin
14 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS
8 WILSON'S PHALAROPES
2 Band-tailed Pigeons
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Black-throated Gray Warbler
1 female WESTERN TANAGER
4 Evening Grosbeaks

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net