Hello Tweets,

After spending such a wet day yesterday at home it felt great to enjoy a nice,sunny day out birding and not venturing too far from our home. We decided to spend most of the day by walking the entire outer "loop" trail at the Nisqually NWR. Before leaving our home this morning at 9am we enjoyed a 3 warbler day in our front yard consisting of our wintering Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warbler on our suet feeder followed by our personal first of the year Orange-crowned Warbler that foraged in a Flowering Currant that is in full bloom.

We arrived at the Nisqually NWR at 9:45am,where we joined Jim Pruske as large flocks of Cackling Geese flew around overhead and were most likely flushed by a passing Bald Eagle. We spent 5 hours walking the outer trail beginning along McAllister Creek and working our way around to the Nisqually Delta during outgoing tide. At times we encountered rather stiff winds,which made conditions cooler but when the sun was out we had nice,warm temperatures. Overall birding was slow at times,especially for passerines with few Yellow-rumped Warblers noted all day compared to last week's visit. Waterfowl numbers remained in good supply throughout the refuge including on the Nisqually Delta. We tallied 76 species of birds with our last species of the day being an Am.Kestrel observed perched atop a bush near the entrance gate. Overall our day was filled with a rather good assortment diversity wise, although nothing too exceptional. A list of our most noteworthy sightings during the day included the following:

1 Red-throated Loon(Nisqually Reach)

1 Eared Grebe(1 bird in alternate plumage continuing along McAllister Creek with Horned Grebes)

55+ Western Grebes(Nisqually Reach)

3 Brandt's Cormorants and 2 Pelagic Cormorants(Nisqually Reach)

2 lingering immature Snow Geese(observed amongst large flocks of Cackling Geese along the McAllister Creek Trail)

18 "Black" Brant(Nisqually Reach)

1 pair of Wood Ducks

1 male Eurasian Wigeon(Twin Barns)

20+ Surf Scoters and 7 White-winged Scoters(Nisqually Reach)

7 Turkey Vultures(observed as single birds in flight from several locations)

19 Greater Yellowlegs and 3 Least Sandpipers(McAllister Creek)

70+ Dunlin(Nisqually Delta)

2 Western Gulls(Nisqually Delta)

1 Caspian Tern(our first of the season observed along McAllister Creek)

2 Mourning Doves

1 adult Great Horned Owl(observed alone at a nestsite in a tall Black Cottonwood tree east of the Twin Barns)

3 Rufous Hummingbirds

2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, 1 Cliff Swallow and 3 Barn Swallows(all observed at various and separate locations along the McAllister Creek Trail). Good numbers of Tree Swallows abound throughout the refuge with smaller numbers of Violet-green Swallows. We observed a single pair of aggressive or territorial Tee Swallows that fought in McAllister Creek,as they eventually reached the shores to land.

3 pairs of Bushtits

1 Western Meadowlark(Twin Barns)

2 male Purple Finches

In addition to birds we observed one butterfly species, which was a Blue of undetermined species along with our mammal highlight of the day being a Raccoon near the Ring Dike Trail.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com