Steve Nord, Keith Brady and I walked the Nisqually NWR loop today with only
a few interesting birds seen. There was 1 GR. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE seen from
the Twin Barns. Still some wigeon flocks of 40 some birds scattered around
the refuge, I think we had 4 or 5 EURASIAN WIGEON today with at least one
hybrid drake. Small numbers of G/W Teal, Bufflehead, N. Pintail, Shovelers
and Gadwall. There were 6 GREATER YELLOWLEGS along McAllister Creek near
the eagle's nest. One dark juvenile R/T Hawk that was probably a Harlan's
out near the mouth of McAllister. Loads of TREE and a few V/G SWALLOWS
flying all over the place. 3 RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS seen along the heavy
Salmonberry area of the canals after and before the Ring-Dike. Some flocks
of DUNLIN were about on the Reach, also a nice flock of BRANT out there.
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were common today, small flocks of 5-10 birds all
along the dike and along the trail to the Ring-Dike. Most of the birds were
AUDUBON'S, with a few nice alternate plumage males in there. 1 NORTHERN
SHRIKE was seen from the trail out to McAllister Creek. Probably the most
interesting bird of the day was a weird TREE SWALLOW perched (and later
flying) on a nest box, it had the blue-green back of a normal Tree Swallow
but also had: white lores, some white coming up behind the eye, white flecks
in the crown and along the nape, also had white feathering in the rump (it
didn't wrap around neatly connecting the white belly across the rump, was
patchy white), the uppertail coverts were of the normal back color. Strange
bird.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA