Hello Tweets,

Today we birded the Nisqually NWR in Thurston Co. between 11:30am-3:45pm by walking the entire 5 miles+ "loop" trail with great birding conditions. Despite not relocating the immature White-tailed Kite we did manage to encounter several other noteworthy species along with running into several other birders. We were joined for most of our visit by Jim McCoy,who walked with us the entire loop trail. Our most noteworthy species noted began with a distant flying Great Egret observed flying towards the Nisqually Delta,which were never did relocate and the 3 lingering Sandhill Cranes,which were noted flying low near the Twin Barns as we watched them from the McAllister Creek trail. Other notables observed during our visit to the Nisqually NWR included the following species:

1 Green Heron
8 Wood Ducks
1 female Blue-winged Teal
8 Surf Scoters
5 Hooded Mergansers
2 Pied-billed Grebes
2 Turkey Vultures
2 adult Bald Eagles
5-6 Northern Harriers
1 adult Cooper's Hawk(+ 1 accipiter species)
1 Merlin
3 Peregrine Falcon(including 1 juvenile bird pursuing a Northern Pintail)
2 Virginia Rails(heard only)
5+ Caspian Terns
1 Black-bellied Plover(Nisqually Delta)
1 Least Sandpiper
9 Vaux's Swifts
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Willow Flycatcher
8+Violet-green Swallows
25+ Barn Swallows
11 Steller's Jays(observed in a roaming flock noted at the main parking lot)
12+ Bushtits
1 Brown Creeper
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
14+ Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Swainson's Thrush
1 Am.Pipit
2 Orange-crowned Warbler
34+ Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Black-throated Gray Warbler
3 Lincoln's Sparrows
15+ Golden-crowned Sparrows
12 Purple Finches


Mammals:

1 Muskrat



On a side note we observed 4 Great Egrets yesterday during our WOS field trip,which were left out of our previous report. These sightings included 1 bird along S.R.105 at the perched atop a dead tree at the Johns River WRA followed by up to 3 birds further west along S.R.105 at the mouth of the Elk River near Bay City.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net