My husband and I got out to Nisqually later in the day than I had hoped for,
starting around 1pm. There were big crowds on this fairly nice Sunday
afternoon. Perhaps that's what scared off the phalaropes, our hopes of
seeing both species side by side didn't happen. Still, we had an enjoyable
time anyway. It was very windy today and many of the smaller birds were
hunched down out of the wind for the most part. Duck numbers seemed very
down as well. Here are some highlights:

The first bird of note is an UNIDENTIFIED LARGE SPARROW LIKE BIRD that
"plinked" at me, bringing my attention to it only a few feet from me,
walking in the grass I immediately realized this was not a bird I
recognized, I got fairly good looks at it walking in the grass only a couple
feet from me, but when some people came from the other direction it flew. I
followed it with my eyes and it flew into some taller grasses next to the
path to McCallister Creek still within the area of the first ponds. I
walked out toward that spot and was pishing when it flew out right from
under my nose and out across the ponds and of course out of sight. My
husband had my field guide with him, so I waited till he caught up with me
and scanned through. I never came to a conclusion, the closest thing in the
book that i saw was a Lark Sparrow, but it didn't seem exactly right, and
this bird I think was even a little larger than that. It had very
distinctive large tan/buff stripes on the side of the head, but the throat
wasn't as distinctive. It was nearly if not fully two times larger than a
savanna sparrow. So I have a mystery bird, that is not one of the regular
sort out there. Any ideas would be fun to hear, and maybe someone
will stumble across this bird and solve the mystery.

4 LONG-BILLED DOWATCHERS in flight over first north side pond on path to
McCallister Cr.
7 LONG-BILLED DOWATCHERS feeding in water in last north side pond on same
path, before the apple tree.
4 GREATER YELLOLEGS 2 same area as dowitchers, 2 on McCallister Cr.
MARSH WREN with nest material near the bridge to the blind on path heading
north to McCallister Cr. This little guy entertained us while we ate our
lunch. He would bring in a piece of cat-tail fluff, perch and look around,
tuck into his bushes and then come out and give a good yodel to make sure
the world knew about it. Then fly off, and do this all over and over and
over. Fun. A lot of marsh wrens were making themselves more visable today.
1 adult BALD EAGLE trying to run off an OSPREY over McCallister creek
1 BITTERN in grass on the way to McCallister Creek, spotted by my husband,
much to his delight.
CINNAMON TEAL
2 GREATER WHITE FRONTED GEESE in with a mix of CANADA and CACKLING GEESE in
first northside ponds along trail to McCallister Creek
5 species of SWALLOWS in huge numbers, the sky was swarming with them!
WESTERN TANANGER viewed from the overlook deck
1 Pair CANADA GEESE with 7 goslings and another pair with 4 goslings
WOOD DUCK
1 HUMMINGBIRD NEST WITH BABIES - this was such a treat for us, the mother
came in and fed them and we could see the little heads, then she settled
down on them. The nest was attached wonderfully to a branch and then made
to look just like the branch with lichen and moss.
1 ROBIN NEST WITH BABIES - three very young and sleeping baby robins

We saw and heard several others, but those are some fun highlights.

Also had a first time yard bird yesterday - Black Headed Grossbeak. This
was a treat, it spent the day in our yard, coming to the feeder and the suet
feeder several times between it's serenading It kept flying off the little
pine siskins from the feeder.

Now I'll go take a look at Keith's pics of those Phalaropes - at least I can
compare them that way! Thanks Keith.

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia, WA
mnmkirschner at gmail.com