Subject: [Tweeters] Skokomish Delta
Date: Apr 9 16:18:24 2011
From: wheelermombi at comcast.net - wheelermombi at comcast.net




Hi Tweeters,



Jim Pruske led a small group of birders on a Black Hills Audubon Society trip to the Skokomish Delta in Mason County.? We were joined by Skokomish DNR employee Alex, who granted us permission to explore the delta via a wonderful boardwalk/dike trail.? Alex's father came along as well and provided us with a lot of background information about the area throughout the morning.? A large portion of the delta is recently reclaimed farm land in which the dike had been breached in order to return the habitat to a tidal estuary and is therefore very reminiscent of Nisqually.? The boardwalk is perhaps half of the length of the new one at Nisqually and the surface is cement instead of wood.? The access is gated off and permission to enter the delta must be obtained from the Skokomish DNR, if I am not mistaken.



For me, the most impressive sights of the day were the large rafts of birds out on the Sound.? One consisted of 750+ WESTERN GREBE all in a row and another of 1400+ WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, which were interspersed with a much smaller number of SURF SCOTER and hundreds of MALLARDS and a raft of 50+ HORNED GREBE (a few in breeding plumage).? Also seen were both species of GOLDENEYES, GREATER SCAUP, RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS in the Sound and COMMON MERGANSERS in the fresh water, perhaps half a dozen BRANT, 1 OSPREY, 3 TURKEY VULTURES, 2 CASPIAN TERNS, several BALD EAGLES, and RED-TAILED HAWKS.? The only shorebirds were a couple of GREATER YELLOWLEGS.? We also spotted 1 NORTHERN SHRIKE, which I don't recall having seen this late in the season before.? Is this unusual?



After the delta, we went up to Potlatch SP.? Just north of the bathrooms and fairly close inshore, we spotted HORNED, WESTERN, RED-NECKED, AND 1 EARED GREBE.? The Red-necked Grebe was in partial breeding plumage, which I don't see very often, and the Eared Grebe was in transition, giving it a mottled, dirty look.? In the water by a cement platform north of the park were 4 HARLEQUIN DUCK.? Also seen were 1 OSPREY and 1 COMMON LOON.



Jim and I continued to bird within Mason County for a couple of hours more.? Among the species seen was a FOY (for me) ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW.? We also found an A. DIPPER.? The last that I saw of Jim he was pursuing his FOY butterfly down a trail, camera in hand?(he said that it was an uncommon species of Angel Wing?).? It seemed like a good time to head home.



Fun trip with great weather!?



Good birding,



Lonnie Somer

Olympia

wheelermombi at comcast.net