Hi Tweets,

Ten of us endured/enjoyed a testy walk with driving rain/sunny skies and
temperatures in the 40?s Fahrenheit. We lingered at the visitor center
waiting for the rain to let up, and had good looks of Pied-billed Grebe,
American Wigeon, immature Bald Eagle, Bufflehead, and many stunning
Ring-necked Duck. The Bald Eagle numbers were doubled (10-12) on the refuge
from the previous week, with many dark first year birds and immature
second/third year birds. While at Gog Le Hi Te Wetlands in Tacoma later in
the day, I watched Thayer?s Gulls, Glaucous-winged, Glaucous-winged x
Western Gull, and Western Gulls eating salmon carcasses, so I suspect the
chum salmon must be starting their run up the Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers.

Viewing the flooded fields south of the access road, towards McAllister
Creek and south of the Twin Barns we had lots of waterfowl including
Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Cacklers,
and Bufflehead. Several Red-Tailed Hawks were seen through out the day
perched in distant bush trees. Initially we thought we were watching an
immature Bald Eagle eating carrion, with the rain pounding us and other
Eagles joining in the frolicking in the flooded fields, we realized they
were bathing! Despite being soaking wet, many of us appreciated witnessing
many Bald Eagles taking a shower. We also had one of many wonderful looks
at a Peregrine Falcon at the entrance of the boardwalk.

Along the Twin Barns boardwalk loop trail we had great looks at Hooded
Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Cooper?s Hawk, American Bittern, Downy
Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, Spotted Towhee,
Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, Chestnut-backed
Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Bushtit, Pine Siskin, Bewick?s Wren, Marsh Wren and Varied Thrush. A
Virginia Rail made many calls from the Twin Barns cut-off. Nancy reported
the Pileated Woodpecker extracting large grubs for a rotten snag over the
slough where the north boardwalk intersects with the east boardwalk.

By the time we were at the Twin Barns overlook, the sun was out and we had
some time to really enjoy all the waterfowl. Eurasian Wigeon and probably
Greater Scaup were new for the day. Wonderful aerial displays of Peregrine
Falcon and Bald Eagle, as they were hunting and harassing each other. Jerry
and Matt educated us with some recent research about Taverner?s Cackling
Geese. I usually focus on Cacklers versus Canada?s and keep my eyes open
for the occasional Aleutian Cackler. The refuge has a wide variety of sizes
and duskiness that continue to challenge our identifications skills, and
hopefully comparing the length of the bill culmen to the width of the chin
strap white patch will help us pick out the Taverner?s Cackling from the
Lesser Canada?s. We feel confident we had a group of 20 Taverner?s Cacklers
with bill culmen length the same size as chin strap width and primary
projections extending beyond the tail.

The Nisqually overlook was an unusual hotspot with fantastic observation of
a Hermit Thrush feeding for 10 minutes or more along the creek in the
repaired riparian area. The entire group had plenty of time to appreciate
this unique opportunity as the Hermit Thrush was eating little worms from
the bank. We also had great looks of Yellow-rumped warbler, Winter Wren,
Belted Kingfisher, our wintering resident Great Egret, and Bald Eagle.

Out on the new dike, the repaired riparian area was full of thousands of
Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Mallard, and Northern Shovelers. We
observed many Great-Blue Heron, and feeding Ring-billed Gulls. Hundreds of
Dunlin can be seen in the flooded fields and the tidal areas out by the old
dike footprint. Greater Yellowlegs were feeding adjacent to the new
boardwalk junction with the new dike as well as Mew Gull. We had a fly over
of 6 Wilson Snipe as well.

Overall, a great day with 61 species, and Hermit Thrush being new for the
year. Harbor seal, California Sea Lion, Columbia Black-tailed Deer and
Eastern Grey Squirrel were our mammals for the day.

Until next week at 8am, happy birding!

Shep Thorp
Browns Point
mailto:sthorp at theaec.com
cell #: 253-370-3742