Subject: Nisqually NWR 5/18/04
Date: May 18 14:53:35 2004
From: SCRBJAY at aol.com - SCRBJAY at aol.com


Hi Tweets,

Thursday came a couple of day early this week and I did my weekly walk today
as I will be out of town on Thursday. It was a beautiful day with the
temperature about 55 degrees at 8:15 when two of us started the walk.

The highlight of the day occurred in the first couple on minutes when I
spotted male LAZULI BUNTING just across from the parking lot in the brush behind
the pond. Years ago, before the visitor center was built, we used to follow that
road from the old parking lot. We both got good looks at the bird. He was/is
in the same area he was last year.

This nice weather is really drying up the ponds between McAllister Creek and
the Twin Barns. Not much water anywhere hence very few waterfowl or shorebirds
today. We did see MALLARDS, GADWALL, CINNAMON TEAL, BLUE-WINGED TEAL and WOOD
DUCKS but not much else. We did see three broods of HOODED MERGANSERS and one
brood of WOOD DUCKS. No shorebirds except KILLDEER were seen.

We did see four AMERICAN BITTERN including three at one time at the end of
the pond on the left on the way out to McAllister Creek. We were watching the
CINNAMON TEAL when two BITTERN flew in followed shortly by the third. About that
time the BLUE-WINGED TEAL swam out of the weeds in front of us to add to the
color.

YELLOW WARBLERS were everywhere as were COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. There were
plenty of CEDAR WAXWING around as well as MARSH WREN and raptors. This was the
first week in a while were we saw multiple NORTHERN HARRIERS and RED-TAILED HAWK.

We also saw a MINK, in the woods on the Nisqually River side and a RED-EARED
SLIDER on the pond behind the visitor center.

All in al we saw 46 species with the LAZULI BUNTING being the only new
species for the year. Year total now is 107.

Next week I'll be back to a Thursday walk at 8:15.


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

"We were few and they were plenty. Now we are plenty and they
are few."
Confucius