Hello Tweets,

Today we enjoyed a nice day at the Nisqually NWR between 8am-1:30pm along with the morning company with Jim Danzenbaker,as well as running into Bill Tweit and Bruce Labar. Jim joined us during the morning until 10:45am as we walked the McAllister Creek Trail north to just south of the photo blinds by checking the shorebird habitat thoroughly. We encountered a total of 70 species without walking the entire loop,but our main focus was again made on shorebirds as in past visits! Our main highlight of the day was encountering 4 separate juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS at 2 separate locations along the McAllister Creek Trail observed by 5 birders. Our first 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers were encountered as we walked the McAllister Creek Trail just before arriving to the McAllister Creek Trail Overlook,where Jim spotted 1,then 2 then finally we all located a third bird that were all in great viewing in our spotting scopes. This was real excitement to us,as this is a very good and exceptional count for Semipalmated Sandpipers for Thurston Co and the general southern Puget Sound region. We watched the 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers for quite awhile along with the other shorebirds at the location before we decided to continue along the McAllister Creek Trail northward. We soon joined up with Bill Tweit and Bruce Labar on their return trip back from he photo blind,as we exchanged sightings,etc. It was at the spot we met them that the 4th Semipalmated Sandpiper was located,which they initially spotted for us. All 4 Semipalmated Sandpiper were very pale showing a crisp mantle pattern,as well as a worn grayish-brown wash across the upper breast contrasting to the clean white throat and supercillium and an obvious relatively short,stubby bill. This now makes 6 Semipalmated Sandpipers at the Nisqually NWR this season and more could show up as water levels recede and it is expected the change in weather over the past day brought in many new shorebirds. We have paced 3 photos of 2 of the 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers onto our website,including one very poor photo taken in flight. In addition we have placed 4 photos of the juvenile Red-necked Phalarope onto our website taken at the Ocean Shores STP on the 28th of July,of which both species can be viewed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/recent_photos/

We noticed that shorebird numbers along the McAllister Creek Trail were in stable numbers,but more concentrated by "peeps" more than anything along with good numbers of resident Killdeer. Amongst the many "peeps" we encountered only a few juvenile birds amongst the adults with their bright,crisp plumages. In addition other shorebird species were lower in numbers than our previous visits such as Greater Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitchers. The only new shorebirds species encountered at this location included 20+ Semipalmated Plovers,which were scattered around widely amongst the stubbly muddy areas. After birding with Jim we returned to the main parking lot and ate lunch before walking along the Nisqually River Trail north to the Ring Dike Trail in search of passerines,etc. It is here we encountered a few rain showers that quickly passed,which helped in the birding especially when the sun came out afterwards. Good numbers of Yellow Warblers were most prevalent amongst a few scattered passerine flocks,but other areas were very quiet and slow. Our best passerine species were 2 MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLERS observed in dense vegetation along the boardwalk between the Nisqually River and the Twin Barns,which was our first personal record for the location. Our last good species of the day before leaving the main parking lot was a single adult CHIPPING SPARROW observed along the gravel road bordering the west parking lot,as it foraged alone with a few White-crowned Sparrows nearby. A list of other additional highlights during our visit to the Nisqually NWR included the following:

6 Pied-billed Grebes(5 juvenile birds,1 adult bird)
3 American Bitterns(2 birds along the McAllister Creek Trail,1 bird along the Ring Dike Trail)
3 juvenile Wood Ducks
6 Green-winged Teal
6 Northern Pintail
8 Blue-winged Teal
1 Cinnamon Teal
1 female Gadwall with 4 young
1 immature male Hooded Merganser
2 adult Bald Eagles
3 Northern Harriers
14 Greater Yellowlegs
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Spotted Sandpiper
130+ Western Sandpipers
60+ Least Sandpipers
37 Long-billed Dowitchers
20+ Wilson's Snipe
5 Caspian Terns
2 Rufous Hummingbirds
3 Red-breasted Sapsuckers
1 Hairy Woodpecker
7 Western Wood Pewees
20+ Willow Flycatchers
2 Pacific-slope Flycatchers
10+ Purple Martins
4 Northern Rough-winged Swallows
3 COMMON RAVENS(3 birds together flying from the Twin Barns then all landing briefly on rolled-up hay bails just west of the main parking lot before all continuing together towards I-5).This is a somewhat nice count for this species at this location.
12 Bushtits
4 Brown Creepers
5 Warbling Vireos
8 Orange-crowned Warblers
30+ Yellow Warblers
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
5 Wilson's Warblers
5 Purple Finches


Our mammal highlights of the day were the following species:

2 River Otters(McAllister Creek Trail)
1 Long-tailed Weasel and 1 MINK along the Nisqually River Trail



Good birding,

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