Hello Tweets,

Today we again birded the Nisqually NWR by walking the entire "loop" trail beginning from the McAllister Creek Trail north to the Nisqually Delta then returning along the Nisqually River side of the refuge. We encountered a total of 70 species between the hours of 10:30am-2:30pm with a much different assortment of species. As in our visit yesterday our main interests were migrating shorebirds of which we encountered many of the same varieties and numbers,including both the SOLITARY SANDPIPER and the SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER at the same location than noted yesterday. We were able to get one distant photo of the Solitary Sandpiper,which can be viewed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_shorebirds/


Western Sandpipers seemed in good numbers throughout the western portion of the refuge beginning along the western portion of the McAllister Creek Trail extending north to the Nisqually Delta. Our return walk along the Nisqually River produced a nice assortment of passerines upon our afternoon walk,including a single hatch year CASSIN'S VIREO and a Black-throated Gray Warbler both attracted amongst other songbirds by the imitation of a Western Screech Owl. Our last good and final bird of the day was an adult CHIPPING SPARROW observed along the main road as we left the main parking lot in the old apple orchard near the maintenance area,which seemed quite noteworthy for the date and location. Much of the refuge is overtaken by very tall grass and vegetation,but there are areas with ample viewing of wetland areas,as well as viewing made from the Nisqually Delta and a spotting scope is a necessity in all aspects. Due to the warm temperatures good numbers of various dragonflies and butterflies along the various trails. A list of additional highlights during the day included the following species:

5 adult Pied-billed Grebes(with 8 scattered young observed at various wetland locations)
2 adult Green Herons
6 female Wood Ducks(with 18 young noted from various wetland locations with or without the adult female birds)
2 SURF SCOTERS(Nisqually Reach)
10 Hooded Mergansers
50 Common Mergansers(including 1 adult female with 1 young along McAllister Creek)
5 Bald Eagles
1 adult Cooper's Hawk
1 Virginia Rail(heard only)
22 Greater Yellowlegs
710+ Western Sandpipers
68+ Least Sandpipers
34 Long-billed Dowitchers
3 Wilson's Snipes
1 juvenile BONAPARTE'S GULL(Nisqually Delta)
42+ Caspian Terns
1 COMMON MURRE(Nisqually Reach)
6 Pigeon Guillemots
4 Rhinoceros Auklets(Nisqually Reach)
1 Rufous Hummingbird
4 Belted Kingfishers
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher
1 Western Wood Pewee
12 Willow Flycatchers
1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
5 Purple Martins
12 Northern Rough-winged Swallows
5 Bushtits
5 Warbling Vireos
5 Yellow Warblers
1 Western Tanager
2 Black-headed Grosbeaks
14 Purple Finches
12 Red Crossbills(quite noteworthy for the location at this time of year)



Good birding,

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