Greetings Tweeters,

This morning a brave group of Tahoma Auduboners braved the threat of rain and flooding to explore the Skokomish River Delta in Mason County. No rain, and even some sun! It didn't even start getting breezy until the mid-afternoon. In fact, the only setback was that 2 of the 6 planned stops were under water (or at least the road to them was)!

In a pleasant, relaxed half day of birding, here's what we saw:

Common Loon, Pied-billed,Horned, Eared, Red-necked and Western Grebe. Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron.

Three VERY LATE Turkey Vultures.

Mallards, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Surf, White-winged and BLACK Scoters, Bufflehead (Yea!! They're back, They're back!) Red-breasted Merganzer.

SIX RAPTERS: Bald Eagle, Nor. Harrier, Sharp-shinned and Coopers Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk, and Merlin.

Am. Coot, Killdeer, Bonaparte's, Mew, Western, and Glaucous-winged Gulls, Rock Pigeon, Kingfisher.

FOUR PICIDS: Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Nor. Flicker, and Pileated Woodpecker.

NORTHERN SHRIKE (always a treat!) Steller's Jay, American Crow, Common Raven.

Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Bewick's,Winter, and Marsh Wrens, American Dipper, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

American Robin, European Straling, Cedar Waxwing, Spotted Towhee, Savannah,Song and Golden-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Junco.

Red-winged Blackbird, House Finch, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch.

62 species in all.

We still can't figure out why we couldn't find a Canada Goose, but we think it has something to do with the Nelson Jinx. Kinda like the Cubs :-(

-Rolan


Rolan Nelson
Burley, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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