Tweeters,
Since I did not see any other posts, I thought I'd relay a few sightings from yesterday's Olympia CBC. First and foremost I'd have to say we lucked out on the weather with generally good viewing conditions. Overall number of species seemed about average with something in the 120's range and not all results yet in. You'll really have to check w/ George Walter, count compiler if you want the gory details.
Some good stuff though... Highlights included Red Phalaropes; 1 by Dave Haden and co. on a boat in Dana passage, and 1 on Capitol Lake, near the outlet by Jason Paulios. In the Nisqually area Chris Chappell had Swamp and White-throated Sparrow on the closed portion near the observation platform, and I had a Yellow-headed Blackbird with red-wings just north of the trail approaching McAllister Creek. This latter area is open to the public. Greater White-fronted Goose, Peregrine, and Merlin were some of the other decent birds we had on the refuge. We also had an adult male Harlequin Duck from the Luhr Beach Boat ramp. Other good count birds included another Swamp Sparrow by Jon Anderson at Percival Creek, an Anna's Hummingbird by Virginia Mouw, and a Northern Goshawk south of Olympia. Sadly we had dips on Black Scoters, Short-eared Owl and Marbled Murrelets (and a few others, but subject to any additions from results not yet in). Count numbers for these species have been low in recent years, though SeOw, and MaMu numbers have never been very high. Also gulls made a rather dismal showing, probably to be expected with the closing of the open pit part of the landfill near Hawks Prairie.

Well good luck to all you CBC'rs out there,
Bill Shelmerdine
Olympia
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