Hello Tweets,

This afternoon we birded a few hours between 12pm-2:30pm by surveying the shorebird habitat along the McAllister Creek Trail at the Nisqually NWR. We walked as far north than the boardwalk along McAllister Creek then back to the parking lot. As the water levels continue to decrease along the inner dike of he trail shorebirds are at times tougher to see since the birds often favor more concealed areas. The main areas that hosted the main shorebird diversity were approximately 80-100 yards south of the photo blind boardwalk along the McAllister Creek Trail. Areas further south to the east-west trail are much drier in regards to holding less water and thus shorebirds were absent. Our main shorebird highlight was 5 juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS counted along the McAllister Creek Trail south of the photo blind,which all offered great scoping views! This was a nice surprise after seeing 4 birds near this same location on the 30th of July with 3 birds there yesterday. All the Semipalmated Sandpipers were observed in sight distance of eachother and more or less feeding alone with other "peeps" nearby,but also tended to favor areas with ample shoreline rather than complete mud. This may be a Thurston Co. high record for Semipalmated Sandpipers,but it may be possible to get more as shorebird migration continues! Of the 10 shorebird species additional highlights encountered included 18 Lesser Yellowlegs with near the same amount of other shorebird species as yesterday,but in a more concentrated area. A list of some other noteworthy sightings during our visit included the following:

7 juvenile Pied-billed Grebes
3 Am.Bitterns
2 Green Herons
1 adult female Wood Duck
6 Green-winged Teal
4 Northern Pintail
2 Blue-winged Teal
6 Cinnamon Teal
1 immature male Hooded Merganser
9 Common Mergansers(observed along McAllister Creek with 250+ birds noted at the Nisqually Delta yesterday)
1 adult Bald Eagle
2 Northern Harriers
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 Peregrine Falcon(same bird as yesterday with today's bird being observed flying below the forested hillside from the McAllister Creek Overlook and being mobbed by several swallow species including 4 Purple Martins)
2 juvenile Am.Coots
20 Semipalmated Plovers
28 Greater Yellowlegs
2 Spotted Sandpipers
67 Western Sandpipers
42 Least Sandpipers
40 Long-billed Dowitchers
2 Wilson's Snipe
1 Mourning Dove
1 Hairy Woodpecker
2 Olive-sided Flycatchers
7 Willow Flycatchers
8+ Purple Martins


Good shorebirding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com