Hello Tweeters,

Twelve of us enjoyed a beautiful walk this morning with partly cloudy sky?s
and the temperature in the 60?s. There was quite a bit of noise from heavy
machinery working on the dikes and the birding was slow.

A small flock of Canada geese were seen twice flying around the refuge. At
the beginning of walk at the Nature Center Observatory Deck we saw American
Robin, Mallard Duck, Song Sparrow, Belted Kingfisher, Bewick?s Wren and
European Starling. A Bald Eagle was seen flying over McAllister Creek.
Along the western side of the Twin Barns Boardwalk Loop we observed two male
Wood Ducks on the refuge pond, Northern Harrier flying over the fields to
the northwest, and Brown Creeper and Black-capped Chickadee in the cotton
woods.

The twin barns overlook provided good looks at Common Yellow-throat
Warblers, Goldfinch, Savannah Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow. We also
saw Red-tailed Hawk and heard Killdeer. After a majority of our group moved
on, a few of our stragglers we?re captivated by a Red-tailed Hawk
dive-bombing Rock Pigeons. At the Nisqually overlook, we saw a number of
Glaucous-winged Gulls, a beautiful Osprey fly by, and Eastern Grey Squirrel
working in the grass.

Along the southern part of the Twin Barns Loop boardwalk, between the
Riparian Lookout to the East and the Nature Center to the West, we hit a hot
spot of activity. Along the East edge of the cotton wood forest there was a
large flock of American Robins. With all the activity, we began to notice
several other species including Wilson?s Warbler, Warbling Vireo,
Black-throated Grey Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler and Swainsons Thrush.
Both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers showed up, as well a flycatcher with
prominent eye-ring that we could not identify. Looking straight up, we
observed very high above us Tree Swallows and Barn Swallow, which was a nice
surprise since we had not seen any swallows in their usual locations earlier
on the walk.

We had a very enjoyable walk for a slow birding day with 31 species.

Until next week, good birding.

Shep Thorp
Tacoma WA
sthorp at theaec.com <mailto:sthorp at theaec.com>
253-370-3742