Hi Tweeters,

Yesterday my husband and I paddled the uppermost section of the Black River in Thurston County. Talk about a peaceful paddle(well mostly, see below)! This riparian natural area provided lots of great birds. We started off in overcast but pleasant weather finishing up in very windy and very rainy weather. We managed to get 3.3 miles up river towards the lake from the natural resources launch site, before my 17 1/2 foot kayak could not make a turn no matter how hard I tried. There were lots of fresh beaver logging and the main channel became less obvious. On the return trip I had my first ever accidental overturn in my kayak (and I have been kayaking for quite a while!). It happened in a five foot wide section of the river after a tight turn that I got a little too close to the brush, and while attemptig to push off the brush, it gave and I had no chance for recovery...may I say that the Black River is VERY VERY VERY cold!!! Despite a wet suit! One thing that was disco!
vered
from this rediculous little adventure of mine, was that I bought the right binoculars! I had forgot about the binoculars around my neck, while I attempted to pump out water from my boat (while balancing on a tiny little log sticking out of the muck of the river bottom, at this point the water was over my head and the stick made it chest deep) when my husband finally thought of the binoculars and I handed them over to him, it had been at least five minutes with them being fully submerged. The binoculars came out of the situation perfectly fine. So I can highly reccomend the water proofness of Nikon Monarchs. But I would not reccomend a cold rainy day swim in the black river...

Now as to the birds seen and/or heard:

Canada Goose
California Quail
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Mourning Dove
Hummingbird sp.
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Olive-sided Flycatcher (I had great looks at this large flycatcher, at first I thought it was another of the many Cedar Waxwings, but then it swooped out for a bug and landed again, by this time I had my binoculars on it and got to watch as it swallowed a big bug! What a great bird!)
Warbling Vireo
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Common Raven (I was surprised when I heard this bird call...never did see it, but the call was most definately Raven)
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Marsh Wren
American Robin
Swainson's Thrush (singing, ahhhhhh so nice!)
Cedar Waxwing (by far the MOST abundant bird for the day...they were everywhere and in large numbers everytime.)
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow Warbler (I was hearing these most of the paddle until the rain started in, then it got fairly quiet, but while I was preforming my little kayaking drama, they started to sing again, right from the bushes next to us. Anyone else notice how much this birds song sounds like laughter??? ; ) )
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird

Happy Birding,

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia WA
outdoorchickerooatyahoodotcom




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