Hello Tweets,

My mother and I observed a single male Black-headed Grosbeak singing in our front yard at 9am,which was began our day along with a single Warbling Vireo foraging in our Paper Birch tree. We birded to the Nisqually NWR between 1pm-5:30pm and walked the McAllister Creek trail from the main parking lot north to the NW corner of the refuge during incoming tide. We were joined by Dave Hayden,then later by Jim Pruske as we checked most of the lingering shorebird habitat that is quickly drying up along McAllister Creek trail.Overall shorebird numbers seemed far less than our visit on the 25th of April,but Least Sandpiper remained the most abundant shorebird species with good numbers noted at almost all muddy,wet areas including several large pure flocks flying in from McAllister Creek during a return walk back to the parking lot. In addition to shorebirds we noted a few passerines,but overall conditions were quite slow. Another highlight during our visit to the Nisqually NWR was encountering up to 5 Am.Bittern with only one bird heard calling and 4 birds seen along the McAllister Creek trail west of the main parking lot. A list of our entire list of highlights noted included the following:

5 Am.Bitterns
2"Black"Brant(observed on the Nisqually Delta)
6"Cackling"Canada Geese
1 Wood Duck
12 Northern Pintails
6 Blue-winged Teal
13 Cinnamon Teal
5 Northern Shovelers
2 Am.Wigeons
all three mergansers,including 6 Hooded Mergansers
4(2 pair)of Northern Harriers
1 male Am.Kestrel
1 Ring-necked Pheasant(heard only)
1 Sora(heard only)
18 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Solitary Sandpiper(observed during our outgoing and incoming walk in the lingering wetland habitat north of the McAllister Creek trail)
95+ Western Sandpipers
280+ Least Sandpipers
9 Dunlin
3 Short-billed Dowitchers
2 Mourning Doves
1 Vaux's Swift
14 Rufous Hummingbirds
12+ Northern Rough-winged Swallows
2 Steller's Jays
45+ Am.Pipits(observed in the drying shorebird habitat in the NW corner of the refuge)
2 Warbling Vireos
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
8 Yellow Warblers
6 Western Tanagers
1 Black-headed Grosbeak(heard calling along the hillside across McAllister Creek)
9 Golden-crowned Sparrows
2 Purple Finches
2 Evening Grosbeaks


Now,as we write this message we have the male Black-headed Grosbeak coming to our hanging sunflower seed platform feeder that we placed out just for him followed by a single male Wilson's Warbler foraging in our Paper Birch tree in out front yard.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net