Subject: [Tweeters] Snowy Owl @ NNWF
Date: Mar 12 09:23:56 2006
From: Nancy - nelrjb at comcast.net


Hello Tweeters,
I think many of you have seen this bird at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge but my husband and I saw the SNOWY OWL yesterday afternoon for the first time. We walked north on the east side boardwalk along the Nisqually River and just past the observation tower on the Brown Farm Dike Trail about 2.5 miles from the parking lot we found him. He could not be missed. Pure white perched in a tree stump overlooking Puget Sound. It was a life bird for us and very exciting to see. We could see him turning his head 180 degrees and he looked straight at us.

The area was filled with bird life. I have never seen so many SONG SPARROWS. They were so tame. We also came right up to a BEWICKS WREN plucking sand on the boardwalk.

I had hoped to see a few warblers, but they did not appear and may not have arrived yet. Has anyone seen any there yet? We did see a few TREE SWALLOWS. Several were dive bombing an IMMATURE BALD EAGLE soaring in the area.

Here are the other birds of note:
Hooded Merganser- 2 pair
Bufflehead- 6
Red-winged blackbird- only heard one
Rock Dove- many
American Widgeon- at least 12
Canada Geese- many
Ring-necked ducks-5
American Robins
Berwick's Wren- 2
Marsh Wren-2 +
Mallards- 3 pair
Northern Harrier- 4
Red-tailed Hawk- 1
Peregrine Falcon- 1
Shoveler Duck- 1 male
Coots-2
Pintail Duck- 2
Marsh Wren- saw 2 but many singing
Song Sparrows- saw at least 20
Downey Woodpecker- 1 male
Bush Tit- several flocks
Ruby Crowned Kinglets- at least 12 but many in the area
Black-capped chickadees-several
Immature Bald Eagle-2
Common Merganser- 5
American Crow- 4
Common Goldeneye- 2
Double-crested Cormorant- 3
Great Blue Heron-1
Spotted Towhee-6

Where we saw the Owl, there were hundreds of sand pipers which were too far away for us to identify without a scope.

We also saw about 4 Black-tail Deer foraging along the boardwalk. What a beautiful day it was too. Warm and sunny. Today may be the same.

Nancy Lander
Renton, WA.
nelrjb at comcast.net