Subject: [Tweeters] Nisqually NWR - 05/18/05
Date: May 20 11:45:44 2005
From: Maurie Kirschner - outdoorchickeroo at yahoo.com


Yesterday six of us started out birding Nisqually in very windy but partly sunny conditions. As conditions became very, very wet and the birds became more scarce our numbers dwindled till it was just Eric and myself. We were rewarded for our perseverance. When the sun broke out once again, the refuge came alive with bird song and activity. We finished the very last leg of our walk with a couple visiting from Portland.

The walk seemed fairly quiet. For one thing, we could hardly hear birdsong with the wind being so strong and of course most of the little birds were hunkered down, probably holding on to the trees for dear life! But we still managed to see and hear a good number of birds, although not a large number of species. 45 in all.

Some highlights were Bullock's Oriole seen from the visitor center deck. Dawn Bailey had a fly-by of an American Bittern on the way out to McAllister Creek. We had a Sora calling in the first wet willow area on the north side of the trail out to McAllister Creek. Two of our group actually were treated with brief looks as the bird weaved in and out of some cattails. We saw two Band-tailed Pigeons fly into and then out of the trees to the east of the twin barns. Eric and I had great looks at a group of Cedar Waxwings with incredible plumage, the red on the wing tips just glowing in the sun. We also watched a Flycatcher (Emp. sp.) feeding along the boardwalk south of the twin barns turn off. We waited for a while to see if it would announce it's identity, but it never did. The absolute best highlight for me, and I think Eric as well, were three different sightings of Swainson's Thrush, a first for the year, and always a special treat. (I admit I am very fond of thrushes!!
) The
first sighting was just as we were coming off the ring-dike trail. The other two were along the boardwalk between the river overlook and the turn off to the riparian trail.

We had a total of 7 duck species. Nice looks at Cinnamon (m) and Blue-winged Teal (m), Wood Ducks (m/f), Gadwall (m), Hooded Merganser (f), Mallard (m/f), and Common Merganser (f). We saw both Canada and Cackling Geese. Quite a few of the Canada Geese had babies of various ages.

We managed to see five species of swallows. Tree, Barn, Violet-green, Cliff, and Northern Rough-winged.

Northern Flicker were seen and heard quite a few times. The only other woodpecker of the day was a female Downy.

Bald Eagle and Red-tailed Hawk were the only raptors.

Warblers and other yellow birds were seen and heard as follows:
Orange-crowned Warbler (heard only)
Yellow Warbler (seen and heard) - this was by far the most abundant warbler of the day.
Common Yellowthroat (seen and heard)
American Goldfinch (seen) - also fairly abundant
Warbling Vireo (heard mostly with one brief sighting)

The birds that didn't seem to be affected by any of the weather were the Marsh Wrens and the American Robins. Both were out in abundance, no matter what. Truly northwest birds!

When we were on our way back to the parking lot, by this time having been joined by the couple from Portland, we had a neat experience. We stopped to look in the snags on the north side of the southern part of the boardwalk. In one snag, within a few minutes, we watched Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler, and any number of other little birds fly in and look about, then fly off. With plenty of Starlings and one Northern Flicker keeping up residence the whole time. Yep, all it takes is a few minutes of standing in one place and watching one good tree...

Happy Birding,

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia, WA
outdoorchickeroo at yahoo.com








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