Hello Tweets,

Today we birded the Nisqually NWR between 9:30am-1:30pm,despite the hot temperatures. When we arrived at the main parking lot there were a considerable amount of vehicles parked,but by the time we returned at 1pm the parking lot was almost empty. We did enjoy some shady areas as we walked the entire "loop" trail,especially along the Nisqually River side of the refuge. The tide conditions were less favorable during our visit today with a very low minus tide,but we did encounter good numbers of shorebirds along the McAllister Creek side of the refuge. Most noteworthy shorebird observations were increased numbers of Long-billed Dowitchers compared to our last visit. We did observed many "peeps" and relatively good numbers of Greater Yellowlegs from these same locations,as this area continues to host favorable feeding areas for shorebirds. Our return walk along the Nisqually River side of the refuge was very slow most likely probably due to the bad time of day and very hot temperatures. A list of our most notable sightings today included the following species:

11 Pied-billed Grebes(3 adults,8 juvenile birds)
6 juvenile Wood Ducks
2 Northern Pintails
4 BLUE-WINGED TEAL
6 Hooded Mergansers
1 Osprey
1 Northern Harrier
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
3 juvenile Am.Coots
27 Greater Yellowlegs
70 Western Sandpipers
37+ Least Sandpipers
138 Long-billed Dowitchers
19 Wilson's Snipe
2 Mourning Doves
1 Western Wood Pewee
18+ Willow Flycatchers
1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
8+ Purple Martins
8 Northern Rough-winged Swallows
1 Brown Creeper
2 Yellow Warblers
1 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER(quite early in the season for this lowland location)


Also of note we observed many dragonflies during our entire visit to the Nisqually NWR with the main highlights of the species we identified being a single BLACK SADDLEBAGS and a Common Whitetail.


Good birding,

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