Tweets,

Yesterday may have been April Fools Day but the weather was no joke. It was
a miserable day for a walk...and we did the full loop! At least it didn't
snow. Oh wait, yes it did. We had snow flurries while we were out near Luhr
Beach. At least the birds cooperated.

19 of us started the walk at 8:00 AM and 6 of us were still at it at 1:30 PM
when we finished. Some turned back early, some went ahead as they needed to
be back earlier than we finished.

Highlights were an HORNED GREBE, a flock of BLACK BRANT, and the GREAT
HORNED OWLS. Eric had to speed up and his group saw the young owlets but no adult
and our group saw the adult but no juveniles. The owls have moved from the
nest tree area inside the boardwalk and closer to the willow thicket on the
twin barn side of the boardwalk.

The EARED GREBE was seen on McAllister Creek out near Luhr Beach and the
BRANT (about 40 of them) flew in out on Nisqually Reach as we were scanning for
sea birds. The tide was way in but except for 3 SURF SCOTERS we didn't see
anything unusual.

We had a BITTERN and a VIRGINIA RAIL along the trail to McAllister Creek and
had great looks at a NORTHERN SHRIKE out past the photo blind along
McAllister Creek. The most numerous duck was the NORTHERN SHOVELER. We had all 3
MERGANSERS and several BALD EAGLES.

All told we saw 60 species for the day with nothing new for the year.

Mammals seen were HARBOR SEAL, BLACK-TAILED DEER, and RACCOON.

** The refuge is having a final walk on the outer dike on Saturday April
18th beginning at 10:00 AM. They will have volunteers with water at various
points on the trail and will even have a porta-potty out there somewhere. There
will be a shuttle running for those who want to cut their walk short or get
out of the weather.** The outer dike is scheduled to remain open through May
3rd and possibly longer but who knows?

Until next week when we walk the interior of the refuge...

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

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