Tweets,

Yesterday 13 of us walked Nisqually under pretty nasty conditions. It was
windy and chilly when we started and the weather got worse as squall lines
blew through. At least we finished before the heavy rain started after noon.

In spite of the weather we had a pretty good day highlighted by a small
flock of TREE SWALLOWS over the visitor center and 2 GREAT HORNED OWL sightings.

The first GREAT HORNED OWL was sitting in a tree (nest tree?) at the
juncture of the boardwalk from the twin barns and the Nisqually River side. This is
where the owls nested last year. The other owl was in the cedar tree along
the Nisqually River trail out toward the old ring dike. It was seen in the
same area last week.

Waterfowl are still fairly abundant but CACKLING GOOSE numbers were way
down. We had COMMON GOLDENEYE and HORNED GREEBE on both McAllister Creek and the
Nisqually River with COMMON MERGANSERS on the Nisqually.

There were plenty of BALD EAGLES about with one sitting on the nest across
McAllister Creek. NORTHERN HARRIERS and RED-TAILED HAWKS were fewer in
numbers than in past weeks but that may have been weather related. The PEREGRINE
FALCON waited until after lunch to make its appearance but it did.

Songbirds were scarce and the winter flocks seem to have broken up and
dispersed.

All told we saw 44 species for the day with the TREE SWALLOWS , a
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER and AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and PINE SISKINS being new for the year.
We now have 83 species for the year.
No mammals were seen yesterday.

Until next week when we walk the outer dike....assuming it is still open.

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

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