Greetings Tweets --

The first time I sent this to Tweeters on the 21st it seems to have
vanished into the ether...

Date: March 21, 2004
Location: Kennedy Creek Estuary, Mason County, Washington

I was here between 1453 and 1640 to observe the rising of the tide
(6.5 to 11.0 as predicted for the Burns Point gage) in hopes of seeing
some evidence of he spring shorebird migration. I was not
disappointed! There were probably more Dunlin and Black-bellied Plover
than I saw - the rising tide could have pushed them from Oyster Bay up
Schnieder Creek Estuary as easily as up Kennedy Creek Estuary.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 2 [1]
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) 50
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 4 [2]
Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) 3 [3]
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) 4 [4]
Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) 100
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 10
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) 2000
Bonaparte's Gull (Larus philadelphia) 70
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 5

Footnotes:

[1] Pair.
[2] 1 male, 3 females.
[3] Females.
[4] 2 pair.

Total number of species seen: 10

This report was mailed for Doug Canning by http://birdnotes.net


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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