Sherry and I birded the River S unit of Ridgefield NWR, driving the loop twice, and later in the afternoon, we drove along the Dike Access Rd. in Woodland. The most numerous bird for the day was the Red-tailed Hawk. They were just everywhere.

At Ridgefield we saw;

Cinnamon Teal - 3 (1 male and 2 females from the blind)
Common Merganser - 5 (Rest Lake)
Greater White-fronted Goose - 1
Tundra Swans - lots and very noisy
Red-tailed Hawk - 20+ (everywhere)
Rough-legged Hawk - 1 (past Rest Lake in the fields)
Long-billed Dowitcher - 3 (Rest Lake)
Red-breasted Sapsucker - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 4

River Otter - 3 (in the slough between the Kiwi parking area and the blind parking area)


At Woodland we saw;

raft of 300+ ducks on the river, looked like mostly Scaup, but no place to pull off and scope them out.
Red-tailed Hawk - 20+ (everywhere)
Great Egret - 5
Sandhill Crane - 700+ (waves and waves flying in from the northeast starting about 3:40pm)


Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA