Tweets,

Today 10 of us enjoyed a relatively quiet walk around the outer dike at
Nisqually. The weather was great, but the birds were pretty scarce. We did manage
46 species, but had some pretty good birds.

The highlight of the day was a GREAT EGRET inside the dike by the service
road out near the observation tower overlooking the Nisqually Reach, about as
far from the visitor center as you can get. There were lots of birds out on the
reach, but we got there on a minus tide.

Over on McAllister Creek we saw SPOTTED SANDPIPER, KILLDEER, LEAST
SANDPIPERS, and GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS. BELTED KINGFISHERS were anywhere there
was water and we managed to see 2 AMERICAN BITTERN, a GREEN HERON, and scads
of GREAT BLUE HERON. We also saw the first COOT of the fall.

We dipped on most warblers, but did see COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and BLACK-CAPPED
CHICKADEE.

Raptor numbers were down, although we did see BALD EAGLE, COOPER'S HAWK,
RED-TAILED HAWK, NORTHERN HARRIER, and TURKEY VULTURE. We also found a
GREAT-HORNED OWL near the primitive trail along the Nisqually side.

New for the year was the GREAT EGRET, giving us 132 species for the year.

Mammals seen included a pair of RIVER OTTER in McAllister Creek, HARBOR
SEALS out on the flats, and a GRAY SQUIRREL along the Nisqually River trail.

Until next week...

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