Phil and Tweets,

After our loop walk today I went out to the twin barns for a picnic...with the fog finally lifting and the sun out, I just couldn't go home yet. Along the way, I found the greeting party that hadn't greeted us. The three GWF Geese were under one of the large trees on the way to the barns. They were with two Canada Geese and what appeared to be a hybrid between the two species.

Spoke with another birder who said he'd heard a Common Yellow Throat in that area as well...but I never heard or saw it.

I decided to wander back out toward the Nisqually and see if the otters would show themselves...they didn't. Ended up walking the ring-dike trail and just before meeting up with the main trail again, I looked to the south of the trail and what did I see???? Another BITTERN! Yep, got that third Bittern after all Phil! Hehe. What a day!

The Cooper's Hawk posing along the trail on the way back to the car was a nice finish to my over 10 miles of walking today.

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia WA
outdoorchickerooatyahoo.com
Scrubjay323 at aol.com wrote:
Tweets,

Today two of us walked the full loop at Nisqually in pretty dense fog. Long distance viewing was out of the question, but we still had a good day.

Things are drying out at Nisqually and waterfowl are either heading north or pairing up. We didn't see any major congregations of ducks, but did see most of the usual species. Raptor viewing was limited to a couple of NORTHERN HARRIERS and a couple of RED-TAILED HAWKS. Either they weren't flying or they were above the fog.

Highlights of the day were two sightings of AMERICAN BITTERN and an EARED GREBE. The grebe was at the end of McAllister Creek near the sound. The bittern were off the trail to McAllister Creek and near the photo blind on the McAllister Creek side.

Adult YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were common throughout the refuge as were BEWICK'S WREN and GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS. We also saw a couple of FOX SPARROWS, including one with a very reddish back near the trail to the photo blind on the McAllister Creek side.

We found one small mixed flock at the end of the boardwalk that included BROWN CREEPER, DOWNEY WOODPECKER, CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE, and both KINGLETS. This flock included a couple of birds of each species, not the far greater numbers seen in the past weeks. There was a lot of courtship activity going on and a lot of the RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS were flashing their crowns.

We also saw both TREE and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS over the pond behind the visitor center and had several turtles sunning themselves about 12:30 when the sun finally came out.

All told we had 49 species for the day with the EARED GREBE and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW being new for the year, giving us 83 species for the year.

Next week Eric Slagle and Dawn Bailey will be your fearless leaders as I will be in Death Valley, CA. I'll be back at the helm the following week.

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

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