Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I spent a few hours between 11:45am-2:30pm checking the Nisqually NWR,then a stop made at Luhr Beach during incoming tide. Conditions were quite slow at both locations,but a few notable highlights were encountered. A walk at the Nisqually NWR was made along the McAllister Creek trail,then north to the photo blind along with a walk made to the Twin Barns and the surrounding boardwalk.The skies remained very cloudy until about 1pm,when skies began to clear. Highlights from the following locations follows below:

Nisqually NWR 11:45pm-1pm

5 Pied-billed Grebes
1 Greater White-fronted Goose(observed in a partially flooded field with 9 Canada Geese just west of the main parking lot along the McAllister Creek trail)
5 Wood Ducks
25 Northern Shovelers
1 male Redhead(observed from the photo blind at the same location than on the 17th of September amongst a flock of other waterfowl species)
3 Ring-necked Ducks
2 Greater Scaup
1 Bufflehead
3 Hooded Mergansers
4 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Cooper's Hawk
3 Red-tailed Hawks(including the lingering adult dark-morph bird noted from the Twins Barns)
1 Merlin
4 Am.Coots
17 Long-billed Dowitchers(a flock of 16 birds flying south of the Twin Barns,as well as a single bird observed from the photo blind accessed from the McAllister Creek trail)
1 Wilson's Snipe
10 Mourning Doves
35+ Vaux's Swifts
3 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Pileated Woodpecker(heard calling along the forested hillside along McAllister Creek)
12+ Violet-green Swallows(observed amongst very large numbers of Barn Swallows)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
135+ Cedar Waxwings
1 Yellow Warbler
28 Yellow-rumped Warblers
6 Common Yellowthroats
4"Sooty"Fox Sparrows
7 Lincoln's Sparrows
28+ Golden-crowned Sparrows
8 Dark-eyed"Oregon"Juncos
25+ Purple Finches
4 Evening Grosbeaks

Luhr Beach 1:25pm-2:30pm

15 Common Loons
25 Horned Grebes
3 Red-necked Grebes
1 Eared Grebe
42 Western Grebes
2 Greater Scaup
45 Surf Scoters
26 White-winged Scoters
1 Northern Harrier(an immature male flying across Nisqually Reach from Anderson Island to the Nisqually Delta)
1 Least Sandpiper
1 Red-necked Phalarope
8 Caspian Terns
1 Common Tern
8 Rhinoceros Auklets


Good birding,

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