Tweets,

Yesterday 17 of us enjoyed a cool walk in the Junuary weather we've been
having around the outer dike at Nisqually. It started out cool & drizzly and we
finished in cool & breezy weather. And I thought it was almost summer.

Interestingly, some of our best sightings were winter or spring birds. A
lot of the expected birds were hunkered down due to the weather, but that is
the way it goes.

Highlights included a couple of late GREEN-WINGED TEAL, a late RED-NECKED
PHALAROPE, and a LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER. The GREEN-WINGED TEAL was on the last
pond before McAllister Creek. As we were looking at it Bob Stallcop asked
what is that shorebird right in front of it? It took a while to get a good look
at it as it was feeding on the mud flats and in and out of vegetation.
Finally we got a good view and were able to ID it. The LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER
was in the same general area.

Other than that most of what we saw was routine. We had MALLARDS, WOOD
DUCKS, HOODED MERGANSERS, COMMON MERGANSERS, and CANADA GEESE all with young.

There were 15+ CASPIAN TERNS out at the sound and there were 100+ AMERICAN
WIGEON on the sound also.

YELLOW WARBLERS. COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, and CEDAR WAXWINGS were common. We
also saw our first BAND-TAILED PIGEON for the year.

We also saw BLUE-WINGED and CINNANOM TEAL and saw a MOURNING DOVE near
McAllister Creek. All five expected SWALLOWS were present as were SWAINSON'S
THRUSH and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK.

All told we saw 54 species for the day with the BAND-TAILED PIGEON being new
for the year.

Mammals seen included COTTON-TAILED RABBIT, HARBOR SEAL, and EASTERN GRAY
SQUIRREL.

Until next week....

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




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