Tweets,

Today 11 of us started walking Nisqually in cold, rainy, windy weather at
about 8:15 am. By the time we finished at 12:15 only 3 of us were left. You
figure out who were the smart ones.

The day started slow with lots of ROBINS and STARLINGS around the visitor
center and stayed slow until about 10:00. We did see all the usual waterfowl in
the ponds out toward McAllister Creek and caught a fleeting glimpse of a
departing AMERICAN BITTERN, but not much else. Later, we had good looks at a
BITTERN in the slough between the boardwalk from the twin barns and the
Nisqually overlook. It was still in the same area when we returned from the ring dike.

As the day wore on and warmed up a bit the riparian areas became somewhat
alive. We saw several SPOTTED TOWHEE and both GOLDEN-CROWNED and WHITE-CROWNED
SPARROWS, as well as a couple of FOX SPARROWS. BROWN CREEPERS were fairly
common and we had both KINGLETS. NORTHEN FLICKERS and DOWNY WOODPECKERS were the
only woodpecker species we saw. We did see both BEWICK'S WREN and MARSH WREN,
but only one of each species.

We did see a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK from the viewing platform at the twin barns.
there were several BALD EAGLES and RED-TAILED HAWKS about. NORTHERN HARRIERS
showed up after it warmed up a bit, but not in the numbers we saw last week.

All told we had 44 species for the day, with the SHARP-SHINNED HAWK being
new for the year, giving us a total of 75 species so far this year.

No mammals were seen today. Clearly, they were smarter than we were.

Until next week when we walk the full loop....

Phil Kelley
Lacey, WA
scrubjay323 at aol.com
360-459-1499

" We were few and they were many. Now we are many and they are few"
Confucius