Tweets,

Today 10 of us walked Nisqually and were treated to a pretty good day. We
beat most of the bad weather. With the exception of some wind it was pretty
nice.

The highlight of the day was the lingering COMMON REDPOLL in the alders out
near the gate by the ring dike on the Nisqually River side. There were a
half dozen or so with a small flock of PINE SISKIN. They allowed us great views
and we even got brief scope views of some of them.

Other highlights included our first WOOD DUCKS of the year, our first TREE
SWALLOWS of the year, and our first CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE of the year. We
also saw all three MERGANSERS.

As usual the MERGANSERS were scattered throughout the refuge. We saw a male
RED-BREASTER MERGANSER on McAllister Creek, COMMON MERGANSERS on the
Nisqually River, and HOODED MERGANSERS on the pond behind the visitor center and in
the slough along the Nisqually River side out toward the ring dike.

There were TREE SWALLOWS over the pond behind the visitor center and behind
the twin barns, and we saw VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS over the marsh out near
McAllister Creek. While we saw a good number of duck species, species numbers
were way down with the exception of GREEN-WINGED TEAL who's numbers were way
up. There were also more COOT than usual.

Passerine numbers were also way down. We saw few sparrows and no
woodpeckers at all.

All told we had 42 species with the WOOD DUCKS, TREE SWALLOWS, and
CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE being new for the year giving us 78 species for the year.

The only mammal seen was a COYOTE that was in there hedgerow behind the pond
across from the parking lot.

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

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