Went back to the nice freshwater marshy-type area along the Mcallister Creek
side of Nisqually NWR today for more shorebird action. Today the birds were
much more wary, many of the Leasts and L/Billeds took off when I arrived at
the green gate...probably due to the sun reflecting off my scope...or my
white t-shirt...or the Bald Eagles circling behind me! The two eaglets are
sitting on branches today away from the actual nest, I'm assuming they'll be
flying about tomorrow or the following day. I did see one imm. flying with
white splashes all over the darker underside...but I don't believe it was
one of the birds from this nest. Anyway, the shorebirds were congregated
further down the creek towards where the river opens up. There is so much
great habitat here this year, I do believe if we can get good birder
coverage that we'll turn up some of those harder to find Thurston shorebirds
like Semipalmated Sandpiper, Pec, and Solitary. Today I found three adult
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS in real close with a couple of Greater Yellowlegs
and a Long-billed Dowitcher for comparison. I believe at least one of these
birds was present yesterday too, but was further out in the marsh and I
couldn't get a positive ID on it. The three birds today were in close with
decent lighting (I bet the late afternoon/early evening would give better
light as the sun would be more behind you) and I could see the spotting on
the anterior sides and on the breast. These birds also lacked the nice warm
rufous colors below that the Long-billeds all showed. The tail seemed to
have wider white barring on it, but I'm not sure that this is a definitive
ID mark any more...I seem to remember reading something about this and the
"caurinus" birds (Greg G. from OR site?). I wasn't able to see any primary
projection on these birds, but the Greater Yellowlegs with them were often
in my way. Are others noticing this "field mark" this summer? I read on
the WI bird net that there may be some papers coming out about primary molt
and dowitchers soon...that ought to be some fun reading (note sarcasm).
This is getting too boring here's the list:

1 P/B Grebe
3 Wood Duck (juv)
3 Northern Shoveler (juv)
4 Bald Eagle
10 Greater Yellowlegs (at least. Hard to count as one bird claimed a rather
large feeding territory and spent much time chasing the others
around...escorting them off its "patch")
1 Spotted Sandpiper (heard)
Least Sandpiper
3 Short-billed Dowitcher (ad)
24 Long-billed Dowitcher (ad)
R/B Gull
1 B/T Pigeon
2 Mourning Dove (I knew there had to be at least one more M. Dove here, I
always just see the one.)
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher (heard on the bluff west of Mcallister Creek)
Western Wood-Pewee
9 Bushtit (nice to see them back in those big flocks)
Marsh Wren (juv punk rockers as Kristin S. calls 'em)
Cedar Waxwing juves out now

Jason Paulios
JPaulios at hotmail.com
Olympia, WA

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