Jess, John and I went birding at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge today
(3/29/03) at 0900 this morning. The weather was overcast with clearings and
warm when we started out. By the end of our walk, it was sunny and about 60
degrees. Very nice. We walked up to the barns, onto the observation deck and
then up along the Nisqually river. We walked out to the Ring-dike loop and
returned with a total of 41 species (42 if you count the Peacock in the
parking lot)

House Finch 3
Violet-green Swallow 3
Ring-necked Duck 4
European Starling 25
Nothern Shovler 15
Barn Swallow 2
Green-winged Teal 2
Bufflehead 3
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Yelllow-rumped Warbler 8 (7 Myrtles and 1 Audubon's)
Pilleated Woodpecker 1
Crow 1
Bewick's Wren 2
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Brown Creeper 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10+
Killdeer 1
Tree Swallow 15
American Widgeon 300+
Northern Pintail 4
American Coot 4
Canada Goose 500+
Rufous Hummingbird 10+
American Goldfinch 1
Marsh Wren 5+
Song Sparrow 10+
Mallard 2
Hooded Merganser 1
Rock Dove 8
Bushtit 3
Spotted Towhee 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Winter Wren 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Common Merganser 8
Gold-crowned Sparrow 6
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Common Goldeneye 4
Bald Eagle (juvenile)

Observations: Although we did not observe any Eurasian widgeons in the flock
of 300 American widgeon that we observed, we ran into another lady birder
who said she saw two from the observation post on the north end of the
refuge. She also did not see any Eurasians in the flock of 300 birds. The
rufous hummingbirds were everywhere, as were the Yellow-rumped Warblers. I
listened hard for other warblers, but apparently I need to be more patient
for spring--they simply are not here yet.

Jim Lynch
Olympia WA
tarj1a1 at attbi.com