Greetings All,
Yesterday I decided to do a little scouting for the Olympia Christmas Bird Count (CBC) this Sunday. I spent the morning on the Nisqually Refuge then checked out the gulls at Perry Creek and Kennedy Creek (the latter is not in the count circle, but has a good number of gulls to pick through). Probably the best bird of the day was a 1yr GLAUCOUS GULL found at Kennedy Creek. There were good numbers of gulls and Shorebirds here (the highest numbers I encountered all day) and I stopped only briefly so who knows what else might be out there.

Perry Creek has been a bit of a disappointment for me so far this year as far as gulls go. On my visits the flocks have only been in the 300 to 500 range and lack much (species) variety. So far I have only been able to tease out a couple of Herrings, Westerns, and a single Mew Gull among the mongrel hoards (and pure???) Glaucous-wings.

Nisqually Refuge seemed a bit slow to me, with sparrow numbers seeming to be particularly low (I guess we will find out on count day). Also the fields to the south of the highway seemed particularly quiet. On the refuge, probably the most atypical thing was the numbers of Cedar Waxwings present. The most notable species include the following: Rough-legged Hawk (Twin Barns), Northern Shrike (only 1, an adult near MacAllister (sp?) Creek), and Eurasian Widgeon (4). I did not catch up with the Snow Geese that have been frequenting the refuge lately. Out on the Nisqually Reach and Luhr Beach area there were single Bonepartes and Thayers Gulls, along with a lone Brant and a couple of Eared Grebe. All can be tough to come by on count day.

Good Luck, Happy Holidays, and productive CBCing.

Bill Shelmerdine
Olympia
Mailto: georn1 at hotmail.com
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