Tweets,

Today 6 of us enjoyed a good walk at Nisqually under overcast/partly sunny
skies. No rain, no wind, no cold. What a great day! The weather has been so
nice lately that the ducks must have gotten started on their northern
migration, because numbers were way down.

Highlights included great views of an adult NORTHERN SHRIKE along the trail
to McAllister Creek, and a male AMERICAN KESTRAL that posed for us in a snag
just past the Nisqually River overlook. We also saw a couple of WESTERN
MEADOWLARKS off the twin barns overlook. They were sitting in a low shrub and
also afforded us great looks.

The real highlight was watching a surprised GREAT BLUE HERON figure out what
to do with 2 frogs it caught. It appeared that the frogs were mating when
the heron struck. The heron had both frogs, one on top of the other, dangling
from its bill when we came upon the scene. As we watched the heron toss the
frogs to get then into position to swallow, the smaller one that was on the
back of the larger frog fell off into the water and presuming made a get a
way, while the larger frog when down the hatch. All this took a few minutes to
develop and left us fascinated. The heron seemed quite content, but I don't
think the frogs felt the same way.

There were lots of sparrows about, particularly GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, and
we saw half a dozen DOWNEY WOODPECKERS. We had a HORNED GREBE and a male
RED-BREASTED MERGANZER at McAllister Creek and saw our first BELTED KINGFISHER
of the year over the Nisqually River. All told we saw 44 species for the day
with the BELTED KINGFISHER being new for the year.

Mammals seen included HARBOR SEAL and EASTERN GRAY SQUIRRELS. The only
amphibians seen were the afore mentioned frogs...

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