Subject: [Tweeters] Nisqually NWR 5/5/10
Date: May 5 20:17:03 2010
From: Scrubjay323 at aol.com - Scrubjay323 at aol.com


Tweets,

Today 24 of us enjoyed a great walk at Nisqually. We started the day with
a little birthday celebration for Ruth Sullivan and the party continued
from there. The weather cooperated with almost no wind and overcast skies.
And the birds were out too. Migrants were everywhere!

The highlight was the number of VAUX SWIFTS about the refuge. They were
everywhere! We saw the first flock over the ponds just off the parking
lot. I must say that this is the first time I've seen them below tree top
level. They were hawking insects just over the pond and flying past us at eye
level. We figured there were over 100 of them throughout the day.

Warblers were everywhere! The place was lousy with YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
and we saw ORANGE-CROWNED, YELLOWS and WILSON'S WARBLERS as well as COMMON
YELLOWTHROATS and WARBLING VIREOS. We also has a late RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET.

Waterfowl were still abundant with NORTHERN PINTAIL and MALLARDS being most
prevalent. We did see CINNAMOM and GREEN-WINGED TEAL as well as
SHOVELERS, GADWALL and AMERICAN WIGEON.
We did see a female HOODED MERGANSER with 13 newly hatched young. We also
saw a lone gosling and someone reported seeing a MINK catch a baby duck.

All the expected swallows were about CLIFF and BARN SWALLOWS are nest at
the visitor center and TREE, VIOLET-GREEN, and a few NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED
SWALLOWS were flying over the refuge in addition to the SWIFTS.

Shorebird species were LEAST and WESTERN SANDPIPERS, DUNLIN, KILLDEER, and
DOWITCHER a long way off.

In other news, the owl nest tree in now completely down courtesy last
Monday's wind. On the brighter side work progresses well on the new boardwalk
out to Luhr Beach.

For the day we saw 57 species and we now have 107 for the year. New for
the year were LEAST SANDPIPER, WESTERN SANDPIPER, the DOWITCHER, VAUX'S
SWIFT, PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER, WARBLING VIREO, ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, and
YELLOW and WILSON'S WARBLERS.

Mammals seen were EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL and a MINK out near the river
overlook.

Until next week...

There only raptors we saw were BALD EAGLES and a PEREGRINE FALCON.