Greetings Tweets,

I took advantage of a weekend off from work to do some birding. I was happy to see the weather so nice this weekend. On Saturday, I traveled to Bottle Beach stopping at Ocosta Third Street and John's River on the way back home. The shorebird numbers at both Bottle Beach and Ocosta Third Street were good. At Bottle Beach, I had 9 different species of shorebirds. On Sunday, I invited my mom out for a short day of birding around Thurston county. We visited Zittel's marina and Puget marina on our way to Nisqually NWR. Today proved to be the slower of my two days of birding, but I still picked up a couple new species for my year list. Here are the highlights:

Bottle Beach:
Common Loon
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Western Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher

Ocosta Third Street:
Wood Duck (3 males, 1 female)
Cinnamon Teal (male)
Green-winged Teal

John's River:
Greater White-fronted Goose (8 mixed in with Canada Geese)
Wood Duck
25 Elk
River Otter

Zittel's Marina (towards the end of Johnson Point Rd.)
Hooded Merganser (pair)
2 Raccoons playing in the tidal mud

Puget Marina:
Pacific Loon

Nisqually Head/Luhr Beach:
Great Blue Herons (lots of them across the mouth of McAllister creek)
Harlequin Duck
Purple Martin

Nisqually NWR:
Blue-winged Teal (4 of them in pond west of visitor center)

I checked Mud Bay and Perry Creek on the way home but didn't find anything to note. While out on Wenzel Slough Rd. on Friday evening, I was watching the Red-winged Blackbirds out in one of the grassy fields when I noticed two Great Blue Herons flying low over the field. One brave little red-wing male must have thought they got too close to his territory because he started to harass the herons as they flew over. Those territorial instincts must be quite strong for the blackbird to go after such a large intruder. I thought it to be a little humorous. Happy birding!

Tim O'Brien
Elma, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at centurytel.net