Subject: [Tweeters] Nisqually May 12
Date: May 13 15:49:50 2008
From: Mark & Maurie Kirschner - mnmkirschner at gmail.com


A friend and I got out to the delta around 11:30 and proceeded to spend
seven and a half hours out there! It was such a beautiful day for birding.
We started by walking the first third of the trail to McCallister Creek in
hopes of spotting Phalaropes. We didn't see any at this point so we headed
out to do the full loop counter clockwise. We managed to identify 65
species on our walk and had some wonderful treats along the way, oddly
enough we managed to not see a single Starling, I believe this is an amazing
feat in itself! Other than birds we got great looks at a northwest garter
snake that had recently had something to eat and4 separate beavers, two were
working together on a den. The end of out trip was somewhat like the end of
the fireworks display where you get a big finale that gets the biggest oohs
and awes! The same ponds that we had checked out at the beginning and found
no shorebirds except Killdeer, had plenty of wonderful birds and at good
viewing distances. We had 1 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, 4 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS,
WESTERN SANDPIPERS and LEAST SANDPIPERS.

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE (2)
CACKLING GOOSE
CANADA GOOSE (3 separate pairs with families, ranging from 4-7 each)
WOOD DUCK (at least 10 pairs)
GADWALL (several pairs)
EURASIAN WIGEON (1 pair)
AMERICAN WIGEON
MALLARD (with several having families ranging from 1-5 babies)
CINNAMON TEAL (there were good numbers of these, many paired up and some
where we could only see the males)
NORTHERN SHOVELER
NORTHERN PINTAIL
GREEN-WINGED TEAL
RING-NECKED DUCK
BUFFLEHEAD
HOODED MERGANSER
COMMON MERGANSER
PIED-BILLED GREBE
AMERICAN BITTERN (we got good looks at two separate ones calling, almost
seemed like they were doing so in competition - we also noticed distinctive
differences in their voices)
GREAT BLUE HERON
TURKEY VULTURE (3)
BALD EAGLE
RED-TAILED HAWK
VIRGINIA RAIL (heard)
AMERICAN COOT
KILLDEER
LESSER YELLOWLEGS (3 taking turns bathing, all lined up in a row, something
I have never witnessed before)
WESTERN SANDPIPER
LEAST SANDPIPER
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE
RING-BILLED GULL
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL
CASPIAN TERN
ROCK PIGEON (one banded, right leg red, left leg green, hunched down under
an over hang of the roof at the visitor's center, by itself)
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD (males, females, babies, nests, these birds are really
abundant right now and as always a joy to watch)
BELTED KINGFISHER
HAIRY WOODPECKER
NORTHERN FLICKER
WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE (heard)
LEAST FLYCATCHER (heard)
AMERICAN CROW
TREE SWALLOW
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW
CLIFF SWALLOW
BARN SWALLOW
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE
BROWN CREEPER (heard)
BEWICK'S WREN (we enjoyed seeing and hearing several of these including
seeing one go into a nesting spot, and I must say a very good spot at that!
This bird had picked a spot that unless you saw it go in, you would never
guess it could be a nesting spot, and even once you did know, there would be
no seeing into it, because it was perfectly oriented to keep prying eyes
away!)
MARSH WREN (even a couple nests in various stages of being built)
SWAINSON'S THRUSH (at least twice I heard the call note of this bird, but
never got to see one, hopefully they will show themselves soon)
AMERICAN ROBIN (one on a nest)
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (heard and only in one spot)
YELLOW WARBLER (these were fairly prolific)
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (as usual, huge numbers of these, both myrtle and
audobon's)
COMMON YELLOW-THROAT (along with several males singing and a few glances we
had great views of a female, the first one so far this year for me)
WILSON'S WARBLER (these were very vocal and quite numerous)
SAVANNAH SPARROW
SONG SPARROW
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW
BLACK-HEADED GROSSBEAK
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD (there were large numbers of these, both male and
female, nearly everywhere we went)
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH

We were two very tuckered out but happy birders by the end of the day, and I
feel it is neccesary to applaud my wonderful husband for having dinner well
on it's way by the time we got back, even if he did wonder what had happened
to us! All birders should be so fortunate!

Happy Birding,

Maurie Kirschner
Olympia, WA
mnmkirschner at gamil.com