Hi Tweets,

After two great days birding Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, highlights included
Tundra and Taiga GWF Geese/American Bittern/Virginia Rail/American
Kestrel/Eurasian Widgeon/Northern Shrike/Common Loon/Black Brandt, I headed
home Wednesday afternoon and visited my favorite spots.

Gog Le Hi Te has a good variety of gulls in the tidal ponds, Puyallup River,
and surrounding buildings. I counted approximately 150 Thayer?s Gulls, 300
Glaucous-winged Gulls and Olympic Gulls (Glaucous-winged X Western Gull
hybrid), 3 Western Gulls, 1 Herring Gull, and several Mew Gulls. The
Herring Gull had the cold look of a yellow iris bird with black under sided
primaries to seal the deal on distinguishing it from a large male Thayer?s

thank you Michael Donahue for the rockin? gull class. Also
lots of
immatures with many first year, some second year, and a few third year
gulls. There was a lot to see, and I could have stayed all day.

The Hylebos Watershed region has been reliable for finding the Green Heron.
I?ve seen it 4 times in the last month, and recommend you check the
immediate area water retention ponds, good luck.

The northeast shore of Commencement Bay and log boom area had a White-winged
Scoter, all three cormorants, both goldeneyes, Horned Grebe, Pigeon
Guillemot, Bufflehead, American Widgeon, Black Turnstone, Dunlin, 500 +
Bonaparte Gulls, 300 + Mew Gulls with several immature, 3 California Gulls,
and a sprinkling of Thayer?s/Glaucous-winged and Olympics for good measure.

Browns Point topped off the day with Surf Scoters and Marbled Murrelets.
Good stuff all around!

Good birding!
Shep Thorp
Browns Point, Tacoma
sthorp at theaec.com <mailto:sthorp at theaec.com>
253-370-3742