Today Gary Wiles and I made a half-day run through Weir Prairie in Thurston
Co. and Big Hanaford Road out of Centrailia in Lewis Co. First a note about
Weir Prairie for those West-side birders: you need to have MULTIPLE passes
distributed from the Fort Lewis Headquarters (which we didn't have). But
before we saw the armored vehicles carrying armed soldiers...we saw a pair
of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS checking out a nest box.

At 11:20 AM we arrived at the Centrailia Steam Plant on Big Hanaford road to
look for a Golden Eagle reported privately to Gary. No luck on the Eagle
but we did find:
1 EURASIAN "COMMON" TEAL
1 Eurasian "Common" Teal x Green-winged Teal Hybrid
3 Eurasian Wigeon
15 Dunlin
These birds were all with a large group of mixed G/W Teal, Am. Wigeon, N.
Pintails, and Mallards in the pond after the red barn but before the Steam
Plant facility (when driving east out of Centrailia).

Further down the road after the plant, at the Trans Alta Sediment Pond 36,
we found a flock of 13 Swallow species. We never saw them all together
again, but we did determine that six were TREE SWALLOWS and six were BARN
SWALLOWS with one left over as Swallow SP. The birds were viewed both
flying overhead and perched on the wires behind us. The wide wedge tail of
the Tree Swallows were evident, as were the white patches extending up
towards the rump (but not high enough for V/G Swallow). Also the birds
perched and were viewed through scopes and showed the dark-teal irridencent
back and head coloration with no white patch extending over the eye. Both
species perched next to each other for extended periods, but seemed to fly
mostly with their own species. A couple birds of both species were missing
one or two inner primaries or possibly outer secondaries.

Highlights from sediment pond 36:
26 Ring-necked Duck
1 RUDDY DUCK
6 TREE SWALLOWS
6 BARN SWALLOWS

Jason Paulios and Gary Wiles
Olympia, WA

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