Tweets,

Today 11 of us enjoyed a great walk at Nisqually under mostly cloudy shies
with a couple of brief showers. And those who left early missed the best part
of the walk.

It was fairly quiet early but we did see a couple of SNOW GEESE and the
EARED GREBE on the way out to McAllister Creek. At the visitor we saw the
PEREGRINE FALCON and a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS. The PEREGRINE made at least 4
passes over the refuge but came back empty taloned each time.

There were ducks on the ponds, but nothing unusual and not that many. On
the way back from McAllister Creek we spotted a flock of about 10 DOWITCHERS
that contained both LONG-BILLED and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS.

Out at the ring dike we saw a flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS and saw more on our
return to the visitor center. At stake number 9 we spotted a pair of GREAT
HORNED OWLS roosting in the woods toward the river. Once we got to the
boardwalk we saw a couple of nice mixed flocks of passerines that included
RUBY-CROWNED and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, CHESTNUT-BACKED and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE,
BROWN CREEPER, BUSHTIT, DOWNEY WOODPECKER, BEWICK'S WREN, and a TOWNSEND'S
WARBLER in the small trees near the maintenance area.

For the day we saw 51 species with the TOWNSEND'S WARBLER being new for the
year. We now have 152 species for the year.

Mammals seen were BLACK-TAILED DEER, RIVER OTTER, and HARBOR SEAL.

Due to next Thursday being Thanksgiving day we will walk Nisqually on
Wednesday at the usual time of 8:15 AM. Until then....

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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