Tweets,

Today eight of us walked Nisqually under highly varied conditions....it
would drizzle, then rain, then drizzle, then clear...then start the cycle over
again. The birds must have been put off by the weather, too, as it was pretty
quiet.

Two things were common: water and raptors. There are pond where they
usually aren't and the waterfowl are scattered all over the place. We saw all the
usual suspects bit missed on GADWALL and EURASIAN WIGEON.

Raptors were all over. At one point off the trail to McAllister Creek we
could see 3 RED-TAILED HAWKS, 2 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, and 2 NORTHERN HARRIERS at
the same time. We saw 3 PEREGRINE FALCONS flying over the field between the
trail to McAllister Creek and the twin barns for a brief spell. One stuck
around and the other two took off. A KESTRAL gave us great views at the twin
barns. First it landed on the peak of the roof and posed then it flew onto a
small tree and preened in bright sunlight for awhile.

We finally saw some nice sparrow flocks, mostly GOLDEN-CROWNED and
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS along the trials.

For the day we saw 48 species. We now have 52 species for the year.

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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