Tweets,

Today 6 of us braved lousy early morning weather and showed up at Nisqually
at 8:15 AM for today's walk. We were rewarded with much improved weather
conditions and enjoyed a very productive walk.

Highlights included 2 WHITE-TAILED KITE sightings, 3 AMERICAN BITTERN, a
MERLIN, and 15+ WILSON'S SNIPE sightings. We also saw our first VARIED THRUSH
for the year.

Raptors were evident from the beginning of the walk. As we left the parking
lot for the McAllister Creek trail we had our first WHITE-TAILED KITE sighting
as it flew over the ponds out past the twin barns. Behind that bird was a
BALD EAGLE harassing a NORTHERN HARRIER. We saw several RED-TAILED HAWKS
throughout the morning and saw a MERLIN perched in a tree out near McAllister
Creek, just past the closed gate. On the way back to the parking lot we saw a
COOPER'S HAWK also perched in a small tree. Later as we watched a flock of
KINGLETS a SHARPSHINNED HAWK took a couple of laps around a big cottonwood tree
in a futile effort to snag one of the kinglets. Later, out by the ring
dike, we got good looks at the WHITE-TAILED KITE as it preened atop a small tree.

The WILSON'S SNIPE were first seen flying around the pond across the trail
from the parking lot. We saw several flights take off and return with up to 6
birds being in the air at
the same time. We also saw SNIPE farther out on the trail to McAllister
Creek and out behind the twin barns. The VARIED THRUSH was in the riparian area
inside the boardwalk on the way to the twin barns.

Waterfowl numbers are beginning to pick up, but more water is needed to fill
the usual ponds. There was a large flock of CACKLING GEESE (500+) out in
the fields north of the twin barns and lots of MALLARD around, but other
species were very limited in numbers.

All told we saw 46 species for the day with the VARIED THRUSH being new for
the year.

Mammals seen included 3 RIVER OTTER on McAllister Creek, a MUSKRAT near the
start of the ring dike, a couple of EASTERN GRAY SQUIRRELS, and 6 BLACKTAILED
DEER.

Until next week....



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