Tweets,

Today 10 of us enjoyed a relatively quiet yet productive walk around the
outer dike at Nisqually. Migration was in the air, but there weren't a lot of
any species.

The day got off to a good start with BLACK-THROATED GRAY, YELLOW, and
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS at the visitor center. There were also several COMMON
YELLOWTHROAT in various plumages present.

The real highlights of the day both were out near the end of McAllister
Creek. The GREAT EGRET continues at the refuge and today it was out past the
photo blind toward Luhr Beach. In the same general area we saw our first 2
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE of the season. They were hanging out with a small
flock of CANADA GEESE. We also watched a family of 4 RIVER OTTERS cruising and
fishing in McAllister Creek here.

There weren't many shorebirds to be seen as the tide was pretty far out but
incoming. We did manage to see GREATER YELLOWLEGS, a small flock of WESTERN
SANDPIPERS, a couple of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, and our first SEMIPALMATED
PLOVER of the year.

There were many waterfowl and cormorants out along the sound but a bit to
far to pin them all down. We did ID DOUBLE-CREASTED CORMORANTS, AMERICAN
WIGEON, COMMON MERGANSERS, and MALLARDS. We also saw some CASPIAN TERNS mixed in
with the gulls.

All told we saw 50 species for the day with the SEMIPALMATED PLOVER being
new for the year.

Mammals seen included the RIVER OTTERS and several HARBOR SEAL out in the
sound.

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



************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour