Tweets,

Seven of us enjoyed a pleasant walk at Nisqually yesterday morning. Even my
wife joined us for a while! The day started out cool and foggy and ended
pretty decent with scattered clouds and some sunshine.

the usual three GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE greeted us just off the parking
lot and there were the usual collection of waterfowl present. We had all the
usual duck species, less the EURASIAN WIGEON, and added HOODED MERGANSER, on
McAllister Creek, and COMMON MERGANSER, on the Nisqually River.

The real spirit of the day was in the raptors. After not seeing any on the
way to McAllister Creek in the fog things got way better. Out near McAllister
Creek we saw a male NORTHERN HARRIER in a small tree with 3 female HARRIERS
flying around him. I think he was in trouble as his multiple girlfriends met
each other. All in all we saw every usual raptor at one point or another during
the day. We also had BALD EAGLES, RED-TAILED HAWKS, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS,
COOPER'S HAWKS, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, a PEREGRINE FALCON, a MERLIN, and an
AMERICAN KESTREL, just as I was leaving the refuge.

Passerines were again hard to come by, but I think they were smarted than
us. They were hunkered down in the damp, cool air waiting for the sun to come
out and warm things up.

New for the year were the HOODED MERGANSER, a BELTED KINGFISHER, and
CALIFORNIA GULL. Total species for the day was 47, giving us a total of 64 for the
year.

We had a good day for mammals with a COYOTE in the field between the trail
to McAllister Creek and the freeway, an EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL, in the picnic
area, a COLUMBIA BLACK-TAILED DEER inside the boardwalk, HARBOR SEALS, 1 at
McAllister Creek and 1 in the Nisqually River, a CALIFORNIA SEA LION, in the
Nisqually River, and an OPOSSUM, in a dead snag at the end of the ring dike,
near the gate.

The outer dike trail opens this Monday, so next week's walk will be the full
loop for the first time since October.

Until then

Phil Kelley
Lacey, WA
360-459-1499
scrubjay323 at aol.com

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