Tweets,

Today 27 of us enjoyed a long walk at Nisqually. The weather was pretty
good with overcast skies and brief light drizzle. We did have a lot of wind
out on the new boardwalk which made that a bit uncomfortable and less
productive than hoped, but all in all it was a good day.

Highlights included HORNED and EARED GREBES out on McAllister Creek, a
couple of pair of CINNAMON TEAL, the GREAT HORNED OWL family, and a EURASIAN
COLLORED DOVE. The GREAT EGRET continues to hang around.

The COLLORED DOVE was in the trees between the start of the boardwalk and
the visitor center and flew off south towards the freeway. The GREBES were
on McAllister Creek seen from the new boardwalk and the CINNAMON TEAL were
seen from the twin barns viewing platform.

The GREAT HORNED OWLS were a tree nearest the boardwalk on the Nisqually
side. The young were huddled together high in the tree and the adult was on a
branch not too far to the side at about the same height. The young are
moving around quite a bit but they are still near the nest tree.

Waterfowl numbers were way down with NORTHERN SHOVELERS being the most
numerous species seen. We did see al three MERGANSERS, SURF SCOTERS, and BLACK
BRANT in addition to the usual suspects.

We saw all five SWALLOW species over the ponds near the visitor center but
passerines really haven't arrived yet. We saw an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
near the visitor center, a couple of COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and a few
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS but nothing else. Maybe I'm too anxious. My records show late
April and early May as arrival times.

The only shorebird seen were KILLDEER and GREATER YELLOWLEGS. More should
be arriving soon. Shorebird festival in 2 weeks. The wind was up and the
water choppy so that may have sent them elsewhere.

For the day we saw 64 species with EURASIAN COLLORED DOVE, ORANGE CROWNED
WARBLER, and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW being new for the year.

No mammals were seen except for a dead OPPOSSUM.

Until next week when Eric and Shep will lead in my absence....

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com
Lacey, WA
360-459-1499