Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and I spent 3.5 hours from 2pm-5:30pm during
outgoing tide at the Nisqually NWR in northern Thurston Co.,mainly to check
on any shorebird possibilities with very limited shorebird habitat remaining
including a vegetated "pond" along the McAllister Creek Trail west of the
headquarters parking lot,and a few isolated wet areas located at the NW
corner of the refuge. Shorebirds in general were mainly confined to the
previous mentioned areas,but numbers were quite good with up to 9 shorebird
species observed. Our main highlight was on our return trip to the main
parking lot at the "pond" along McAllister Creek Trail,where a juvenile
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER was well observed foraging mainly alone with other
shorebirds nearby including 1 Greater Yellowlegs,Western and Least
Sandpipers,Spotted Sandpiper,Killdeer,and Long-billed Dowitchers. The bird
was very easy to seperate at close range from the other nearby "peeps" by
the overall pale plumage,showing NO major steaking to the crown or
upperbreast with a distinctive short,stubby bill and white supercillium
along with the fairly long wing extension.

This is are personal second record of Semipalmated Sandpiper for the
Nisqually NWR,with our other record on the 8th of September,2001. The
overall restoration project that was constructed at the Nisqually NWR last
winter has been overgrown by weedy grass and only has a few wet areas that
still remain until the late fall/winter season,with much of thew grass being
currently mowed and cut and rolled into bails.

A list of notable species we observed during our visit this afternoon
include:

1 Pied-billed Grebe
3 Double-crested Cormorants
2 Am.Bitterns
9 Wood Ducks
1 Surf Scoter
3 Hooded Mergansers
8 Bald Eagles
2 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Spotted Sandpipers
1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
102+ Western Sandpipers
34 Least Sandpipers
5 Short-billed Dowitchers
35 Long-billed Dowitchers
8 Common Snipe
62+ California Gulls
34 Caspian Terns
12 Pigeon Guillemots
1 Band-tailed Pigeon
3 Mourning Doves
12 Belted Kingfishers(high count)
1 Pileated Woodpecker
14 Willow Flycatchers
11 Purple Martins
5 Yellow Warbler(including one juvenile observed)
1 Western Tanager

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net