Tweets,

Seven of us enjoyed a walk around the full loop at Nisqually yesterday. The
day started out overcast but that soon burned off and we had a warm, sunny day
by the time we finished.

It was a strange day in that McAllister Creek was high when we got there, so
not much was seen, but by the time we got to the outer limits of the trail the
tide was way out so we couldn't see much we could identify.

In spite of that we had a pretty good day. The highlight of the day was
seeing 4 AMERICAN BITTERN. The first one was seen on the mud flat just beyond what
was the pond across the trail from the parking lot. It flew in and then went
around the corner in the back where there was hopefully still some water. The
other three were seen at the photo blind along McAllister Creek. One flew off
as we arrived at the blind and two were standing at the edge of the water. WOW!
A lot of BITTERN.

The other highlight was near the spot where the brown creeper nest was on the
boardwalk on the Nisqually River side. Here we had two HAIRY WOODPECKERS, a
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, a WARBLING VIREO, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES and a YELLOW
WARBLER.

HARBOR SEALS were well up both the Nisqually River and McAllister Creek. We
also had an OSPREY flyby over the outer mudflats. Shorebirds were scarce with
KILLDEER being seen and a single GREATER YELLOWLEGS flyby at the photo blind
where we saw the BITTERN.

In total we saw 51 species with nothing new for the year. The only mammal we
saw was a RIVER OTTER in McAllister Creek where the trail from the visitor
center ends. Total for the year remains 126.

I will be gone until September 8th so my next walk at Nisqually will be
sometime after that.


Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com
Lacey, WA
360-459-1499

"We were few and they were many, now we are many and they are few."
Confucius