Tweeters:



Ten of us enjoyed a beautiful summer morning at the refuge.??The number of species was down a bit from recent weeks, but the highlights more than compensated.? We started off with an AMERICAN BITTERN flying over the parking lot.? From the visitor center we saw a PIED-BILLED GREBE, WOOD DUCK, female HOODED MERGANSER and BELTED KINGFISHER.



The walk to the twin barns yielded another AMERICAN BITTERN sighting.?? Total sightings for this species for the day was five, and we? figured 2-3 different birds.? We also saw a YELLOW WARBLER, COMMON YELLOW THROAT, WILLOW FLYCATCHER and WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE; and heard a WINTER WREN.? A female WESTERN TANAGER was feeding in the trees just as we made the turn to the barns.? There was a lot of construction activity off the barn landing, but we got great looks at BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS and a juvenile RED-TAILED HAWK.



The highlight of the day came on the way back to the main boardwalk:??a CASSIN'S VIREO feeding two young.?? The birds were close and stayed around long enough?for all of us to get excellent looks.?



Was quiet on the return trip, though we did see BROWN CREEPERS and CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES at the riparian overlook.? The last part of the walk included a WILSON'S WARBLER and Jeff hearing RED CROSSBILLS flying over.



We got a special treat again at the visitor center as we watched a female HOODED MERGANSER struggle for several minutes as she?maneuvered to swallow?what appeared to be a very large bull frog pollywog.? She finally got it down.?



Total species:? 35

Mammals:? Gray Squirrel



Eric Slagle, Olympia

hannaslagle at comcast.net