Hello Tweets,

Eight of us enjoyed a very birdy walk with cloudy skies, intermittent mild
fog, and temperatures in the high 40?s. At the visitor center pond
overlook, we had great looks at Ringed-neck Duck. The lighting allowed us
to observe the vague brown iridescent ring around the neck when the neck was
extended, often just before a dive. The flooded fields just south of the
access road had plenty of waterfowl, including 400 plus Cacklers and one
Aleutian Cackler. Predominantly American Green-winged Teal and American
Wigeon, and many Mallards, Northern Pintail and Northern Shovelers also
heavily occupied the flooded fields south of the Twin Barns. Several
Red-tailed Hawks and a Northern Harrier were observed perched and hunting,
we appreciated dark, rufous and light varieties of immature and mature
Red-tailed Hawk. We had good looks at Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Along the boardwalk loop trail we walked into many mixed flocks of
Blacked-capped Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Brown Creeper, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, and Townsend
Warbler. Many of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets where showing us their red crown
stripe. We also saw three species of Wren and two Varied Thrush. We were
lucky enough to see two Peregrine Falcons, one of which seems to perch
routinely in the eagle nest tree adjacent to the twin barns. An American
Robin with white tertials, rectrices, primaries and speckling on the head,
breast and mantle.

>From the Twin Barns Overlook, highlights included a Eurasian Wigeon, three
Lesser Scaup, Lincoln Sparrow, and Sharp-shinned Hawk. We observed an
American Bittern repeatedly tugging and poking a Garter Snake that appeared
8-12 inches long for 15 minutes. We had hoped to see the Bittern eat the
snake, but moved on to keep ourselves warm. From the boardwalk loop to the
Nisqually River Overlook we observed a Red-breasted Sapsucker, Common
Goldeneye, Belted Kingfisher and flocks of Pine Siskin.

Out on the new dike we had great looks at Bald Eagle and American Kestrel.
The Great Egret continues to feed in the slough just north of the dike. We
observed many flocks of Dunlin, 50-100, flying between the repaired riparian
area and the flood fields south of the Twin Barns. At times the Dunlin
would fly over the dike within 50 feet of our group providing great viewing
of flock movement. We had good views of an unusual looking male Northern
Pintail with a large bill, black/brown head, red-brown mottled breast, and
brown mottled mantle and sides. We speculated this particular bird might be
a hybrid with another species.

Columbia Black-tailed Deer, Harbor Seal and Eastern Gray Squirrel were our
mammals for the day.

Until next week at 8am, good birding!

Shep Thorp
Browns Point
sthorp at theaec.com <mailto:sthorp at theaec.com>
253-927-0238

Number of species: 64

Greater White-fronted Goose 1
Cackling Goose 1000
Cackling Goose (Aleutian) 1
Canada Goose 200
Gadwall 25
Eurasian Wigeon 2
American Wigeon 1000
Mallard 400
Northern Shoveler 300
Northern Pintail 400
Green-winged Teal (American) 1500
Ring-necked Duck 8
Lesser Scaup 3
Bufflehead 20
Common Goldeneye 6
Hooded Merganser 6
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Double-crested Cormorant 2
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 30
Great Egret 1
Bald Eagle 4
Northern Harrier 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk (Western) 8
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon (Peale's) 2
Virginia Rail 1
American Coot 6
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Dunlin 300
Long-billed Dowitcher 15
Mew Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 20
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 8
gull sp. 100
Rock Pigeon 12
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 1
American/Northwestern Crow 10
Tree Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 20
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 10
Brown Creeper 8
Bewick's Wren 6
Winter Wren (Western) 2
Marsh Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 40
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 20
American Robin 40
Varied Thrush 2
European Starling 30
Yellow-rumped Warbler 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 2
Townsend's Warbler 2
Spotted Towhee (Pacific) 4
Fox Sparrow (Sooty) 3
Song Sparrow 12
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2
Red-winged Blackbird 4
Pine Siskin 40
American Goldfinch 2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)