Tweets,

Today 4 of us braved the weather and did a quick walk at Nisqually. It
snowed last night and was raining today when I got to the refuge at 7:45 am
and it was breezy! The rain stopped by 8:45 but the wind continued. What
we saw was hanging on for dear life.

There really weren't many highlights just some good birds to be seen. We
had the lingering EURASIAN WIGEON on the pond behind the visitor center and
lots of BALD EAGLES everywhere on the refuge but not much else special. We
did see two (a pair?) of PEREGRINE FALCONS at the twin barns but
everything else was normal. The gulls seemed to be enjoying themselves as the
cavorted on the wind. Oh to be able to fly like that.....

Our misses included the GREAT EGRET (seen yesterday flying up McAllister
Creek), the HERMIT THRUSH and the GREAT HORNED OWL. Waterfowl were more
prevalent than yesterday as the ponds have thawed but nothing out of the
ordinary. There were COMMON MERGANSER and COMMON GOLDENEYE on the Nisqually as
well as a LESSER SCAUP.

All told we saw 46 species for the day.

Mammals seen were HARBOR SEAL, CALIFORNIA SEA LION, and COLUMBIAN
BLACK-TAILED DEER.

Until nest week when we hope for better weather....

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