Tweets,

Today 11 of us enjoyed a very productive walk under partly cloudy skies. It
was a pleasant change from our recent weather.

The highlight of the walk was watching the GREAT HORNED OWL and two OWLETS
in the nest tree along the boardwalk on the Nisqually River side. The owlets
are just balls of down right now but they were out of the nest. We found
another adult (the mate?) in the cedar tree out past the Nisqually overlook.

We also saw our first SAVANAH SPARROWS and RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS of the year.
Also, there were lots of TREE SWALLOWS and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS over the
pond behind the visitor center.

Water fowl were scarce but we did get good looks at HOODED MERGANSER, COMMON
MERGANSER, COMMON GOLDENEYE, and an EURASIAN WIGEON. We also saw
PIED-BILLED and HORNED GREBE. We did see a flock of 22+ GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE
fly in out behind the twin barns.

What passerines we saw appear to be pairing up and doing courtship displays.
We saw two each of the following RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, DOWNEY WOODPECKER,
and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, one a male in full display...a lot of bright red
for a small bird.

All told we saw 57 species for the day with the SAVANAH SPARROWS and RUFOUS
HUMMERS being new for the year. We now have 92 species for the year.

Mammals seen were EASTERN GRAY SQUIRRELS, a very healthy looking COYOTE, and
an HARBOR SEAL in the Nisqually River.

Until next week.....



Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com
Lacey, WA
360-459-1499
**************Great Deals on Dell 15" Laptops - Starting at $479
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220433363x1201394532/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doub
leclick.net%2Fclk%3B212935224%3B34245239%3Bb)