Tweets,

Happy New Year to all!

Today 9 of us walked Nisqually in surprisingly good weather. It rained a
bit and it blew a bit, but all in all it was a pretty good day.

The number of BALD EAGLES made me think I was on the Skagit. They were
everywhere!! they were the trash bird of the day. We saw more BALD EAGLES than
ROBINS!

The ponds are now full and thawing, so waterfowl are everywhere. Ducks and
geese abound. Highlights included a couple of flights of SNOW GEESE flying
about the refuge. Seems the BALD EAGLES flying about put the geese in the air.

There were lots of MALLARDS, NORTHERN PINTAILS, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, and
GREEN-WINGED TEAL about, along with AMERICAN WIGEON and at least one EURASIAN
WIGEON.

There were a few shorebirds on the refuge and we saw GREATER YELLOWLEGS,
DUNLIN and KILLDEER.

Passerines were scarce but we saw most of the usual suspects, but not in any
numbers.

We finished the walk with an AMERICAN BITTERN in the slough between the
maintenance area and the pond behind the visitor center.

Salmon must be running in the Nisqually River because we saw several HARBOR
SEAL and CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS in the river. Other mammals seen included
COLUMBIAN BLACK-TAILED DEER and EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL.

Total of 51 species seen today . That gives us a total of 145 species for
the year at Nisqually.

Until next year...

.


Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com
Lacey, WA
360-459-1499
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