Greetings Tweeters,
Sorry for the delay in this report as I am still without power and internet
access at home. Sunday December 17 the Olympia CBC had great weather and a
good variety of species. Among the mix that our group had at Nisqually were
4 redpolls. Three were clearly commons and the 4th was more than likely
this species, but I have chosen to record it as Redpoll sp. The bird in
question was quite pale and plump with either clear or very sparsely and
indistinctly streaked undertail coverts. The bill was tiny and had a pale
pink wash on the underparts, much pinker than the male common redpoll in the
group. Unfortunately I was never able to get a good look at the upper parts
/rump. The birds were with a mixed flock of siskins (~60-70) and American
Goldfinches (10). As siskin flocks do, the flock was moving and foraging on
alder catkins at the tops of the trees making for difficult viewing
conditions. We just could not spend enough time with this group, or get
good enough views.

Again this was probably a very pale male common redpoll, but maybe The
good news is that this was on the open portion of the refuge, and I would
encourage people to go looking. The location was along the river trail,
past (north of) the boardwalk and not far past the rip-rap bank where the
river is next to the trail. There is a large leaning western red cedar in
this area that provides a good landmark. I would go back myself but have
other obligations at the moment, and will probably try again later.

With regards to the rest of the CBC, several good species were located. Our
group (Chris Chappell, Scott Pearson, Scott Mills, Ryan Shaw, and Gene
Revelas) tallied 92 species on the Nisqually Refuge. 32 Snow Geese, a Swamp
Sparrow (Ryan and Scott M located the bird on the further part of the cross
over trail near MacAllister Creek), a White-throated Sparrow, 5-6 Northern
Shrike, and 15 Eurasian Widgeon were highlights from the Nisqually Delta.
Jim Pruski located the continuing Short-eared Owl for count week (we missed
it). The count overall recorded somewhere close to 122 -125 species. Other
count highlights included Black-legged Kittiwake and Red Phalarope from the
boat crew. And finally this was the banner year for Anna's Hummingbird,
with at least 8 seen on count day and at least 3 others in the area. This
is a species that is remarkably difficult to find in Thurston County and
seems to average about 1 every couple of years on the count. Well I'm
probably omitting some things, but that should hit the main highlights.
Cheers and good birding
Bill Shelmerdine
mailto: georn1 at hotmail.com

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