Tweets,

Today six of us enjoyed a quiet walk at Nisqually. We walked the winter
portion of the refuge and started out under cloudy skies, but finished in
sunshine.

Highlights included an AMERICAN BITTERN at the ring dike, a WHITE-TAILED
KITE out behind the ring dike and a COOPER'S HAWK fly by at the start of the
ring dike. Hmmm, I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

While the recent rain helped, there is still much need for water on the
refuge. Most of the ponds are still mud so waterfowl are not abundant yet. That
should change soon.

Interestingly, sparrows were scarce today. We only saw a couple of SONG
SPARROWS, a single GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, heard a SPOTTED TOWHEE, and saw a few
DARK-EYED JUNCO. It was pretty breezy, so maybe that's why we didn't see more
sparrows.

We did see some mixed flocks of RUBY and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, BROWN
CREEPER, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, BEWICK'S WREN, and DOWNY WOODPECKER. Sure sign
winter is fast upon us.

All told we had 43 species for the day with nothing new for the year.

Next week Eric Slagle will lead the walk as I will be in Florida. See you in
two weeks.

BTW, the outer dike is open tomorrow and will close again Saturday until the
28th of January.

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