Tweets,

Today 8 of us enjoyed a wonderful day at Nisqually NWR. It was clear and
cool all day with no wind and lots of birds. There is lots of water in the
ponds now so there were loads of waterfowl.

We had several good finds today including a single SNOW GOOSE, an AMERICAN
BITTERN and a VIRGINIA RAIL. We had 5 gull species and 3 shorebird species.

We saw the SNOW GOOSE with a flock of CACKLING GEESE at the back of the new
pond between the parking lot and the twin barns. It was definitely not
"Barney" the feral barnyard goose that visits the refuge. This goose had black
wing tips.

The BITTERN was seen shortly after that flying back toward the visitor
center pond. We had the first of our shorebirds in the same pond., a flock of
DUNLIN lounging along the edge of the pond. A bit farther out toward McAllister
Creek we saw some more DUNLIN with a few WESTERN SANDPIPERS nearby. There
were also some KILLDEER in the same area.

The VIRGINIA RAIL was in the slough behind the twin barns and seen from the
viewing platform there. Fleeting views but seen by most everyone.

Passerines were out in goods numbers but nothing exceptional was seen. The
same with raptors lots about but nothing unusual.

The gulls were mostly late entries onto the pond near the parking lot and
mostly RING-BILLED GULLS with some MEW GULLS added in. There was also a single
CALIFORNIA GULL and a couple of GLOUCOUS-WINGED x WESTERN GULL hybrids
there. We saw a GLOUCOUS-WINGED GULL at McAllister Creek.

All told we saw 53 species for the day with nothing new for the year.

Mammals seen were EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL, RIVER OTTER and HARBOR SEAL.

Until next week....

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

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