Steve Nord and I did a bit of morning birding today at Luhr Beach and then
Nisqually NWR in Olympia. Very high tide at Luhr seemed to push many of the
waterfowl flocks out further making it difficult to see much. We did see a
long line of BRANT off to the west which was interesting since we usually
get them over on the Nisqually River side. Large numbers of COMMON
GOLDENEYE with W/W and SURF SCOTERS thrown in. Had at least 5 EARED GREBES
around. 2 WESTERN-looking GULLS and a couple of nice adult BALD EAGLES with
scattered immatures around too.

The Wigeon numbers were phenomenal around the Twin Barns area at Nisqually.
We picked out 7 EURASIAN WIGEON drakes mixed in and later did a recount when
the flock moved to the large ag field north of the Barns where we had 8
EURASIANS. Found the N. SHRIKE at the very end of the McAllister Creek
trail. Also the ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was in closer today and had great looks
at it from the Twin Barns and also McAllister trail. We had a distant R/L
HAWK seen along the dike from the Barns, so there may be two of these birds
around. Had the adult PEREGRINE in the fir north of the refuge headquarters
and later watched an immature PEREGRINE make some dives at the large Wigeon
flock in the ag field. Good to get out birding again after this snow, many
of the ponds at Nisqually are still frozen over though.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA