Subject: Schouweiler Rd. wetland
Date: Jun 17 22:07:00 2003
From: Ruth Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweets,

This afternoon my mother and I spent a few hours at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland(accessed from Schouweiler Rd. off of Hwy.12 west of Elma in eastern Grays Harbor Co.). Our main purpose was searching for and identifying dragonflies, of which we observed 11 species. We also had a good assortment of birds,despite the relatively constant winds during our visit between 3:30pm-6:30pm and of special note we located the partial albino American Robin previously reported by Tim O'brien along the main trail at the northern end of the main wetland area. This bird is quite different than the partial albino individual we observed on two visits along Wakefield Rd.(south of Elma)in mid April and shows more "splotchy" white areas on the upperparts with distinct white outertail feathers with minor amounts of rust on the belly/breast. Our most notable bird species noted included the following:

1 Am.Bittern
3 Wood Ducks
1 female Hooded Merganser(with 5 young)
8 Turkey Vultures
2 nesting pairs of Osprey
1 Northern Harrier
3 calling Virginia Rails
2 Willow Flycatchers
1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
1 Warbling Vireo
4 Yellow Warblers
5 Black-throated Gray Warblers
1 MacGillivray's Warbler
1 Wilson's Warbler
2 Purple Finches

On route to Elma a single Red-breasted Sapsucker was observed along Hwy.12 at Cloquallum Creek(west of Elma).


Dragonfly species observed at the Schouweiler Rd. wetland included the following:

Pacific Forktail(Ischnura cervula)
Swift Forktail(Ischnura erratica)
Western Forktail(Ischnura perparva)
Northern Bluet(Enallagma cyathigerum)
California Darner(Aeshna californica)
Common Green Darner(Anax junius) (a first personal record for us at this location with several noted)
Beaverpond Baskettail(Epitheca canis)
Dot-tailed Whiteface(Leucorrhinia intacta)
Pale Snaketail(Ophiogomphus severus)
Common Whitetail(Libellula lydia) (a first personal record for us at this location with 1 male observed)
Four-spotted Skimmer(Libellula quadrimaculata)


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net