Despite piles of work to be done at home...hey it was sunny...how could I possibly stay inside?

I birded Nisqually for several hours today starting around noon. Mostly birded on my own but did meet a few other birders from time to time. Met folks from Utah, Oregon, Montana, among others... but it was still very quiet at the refuge today, which considering the weather was a surprise.

Here is a list of what I saw today, some with notes:

Pied-billed Grebe
American Bittern (one flying, one calling)
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture (1 circling just east of the barns)
Greater White-fronted Goose (5 of them today)
Canada Goose
Cackling Goose
Wood Duck (only saw males...must be nesting time)
Gadwall
Eurasian Wigeon (1 pair)
American Wigeon
Mallard (one female had five fluffy babies)
Blue-winged Teal (1pair)
Cinnamon Teal (I only saw one male today)
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail (2 different ones calling)
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe (one flew up out of the grasses when the harrier flew over it)
Rock Pigeon
Barn Owl (I was showing some other birders where the Barn Owls had been seen, as we
watched the opening in the snag there was some wing fluttering, a quick peak out and then the bird disapeared again. Not everyone saw it the first time, and finally the owl peaked out again giving all great looks! This bird looked fairly small and I think it may have been a juvenile.)
Rufous Hummingbird (1 male was doing a display flight over and over and over)
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker (This industrious fella was kindly pointed out to me by some birders visiting from Vancouver WA. The woodpecker was working at excavating a nest hole.)
Hairy Woodpecker
Flycatcher sp. ( This bird looked most like Pacific Slope, but never made a peep...so I was unable to be sure.)
Warbling Vireo
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler (I was very excited to see this bird again after having seen one last Saturday in my yard. At the time I could not recall it being listed on the bird list for the refuge, but when I got home and checked I found that it was on there and listed as accidental. I know at least one other birder, Don from Vancouver, got a decent look at this bird before it popped into a grass clump and didn't come back out.)
Yellow Warbler (my first ones for the year and what a delight they were!)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Both subspecies were present, this was for sure the most abundant Warbler on my walk today)
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Western Tanager (Several of these beautiful birds were hawking from the top of the trees between the River overlook and the ring dike trail.)
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird

Happy Birding,

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia WA
outdoorchickerooatyahoo.com

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