Hello Tweeters,

Jan. 9: I hiked with my 2 children to the Nisqually River lookout. Among the birds that we spotted were:

1 peregrine
4 bald eagles (1 with what appeared to be a duck in its talons)
1 red-tailed hawk
1 northern harrier
1 rough-legged hawk
1 cooper's hawk

Also present green-winged teals, Americans wigeons with a couple of Eurasians, n. pintails, n. shoverlers,
buffleheads, common goldeneyes, ringed-necks, the usual mallards and Canada geese, bewick's wren, house finch, golden-crowned sparrows, house sparrows, spotted towhees, robins, and coots.

In addition, there were 3 harbor seals at the river lookout, which were soon joined by 4 California sea lions that were very noisily catching salmon.

Jan. 10

Returned to Nisqually at 10:30 for a quick walk to McAllister Creek. In addition to some of the more common birds noted above, I saw:

3 g. white-fronted geese
1 kestrel
1 n. shrike

The shrike was sitting in a small tree just past the bench that is located about half-way to the creek to the left of the trail as you walk to the creek. The tree is located some 100 feet off of the trail. Thank you Dave for alerting me to this; it was a lifer for me.

Lonnie Somer
Olympia, WA
wheelermombi at comcast.net