Tweets,

Sorry for the late report but my goof-off schedule has been pretty hectic
lately.

On Wednesday 14 of us started our weekly walk at Nisqually with the
intention of walking the new boardwalk along McAllister Creek. It turned out to
be breezy and rainy and it got worse as we got to the exposed areas of the
refuge. 5 of us (myself included) cut the walk short and did not finish
the boardwalk. The rest of the group did and I laude them for that. My
problem was I needed another layer or two to handle the conditions. (I must have
thought I was still in Florida.) The rain was blowing sideways and got into
the pockets of my rain paints and was running down my right leg.

On to the birds! It turned out to be a pretty good day. We started with
an AMERICAN BITTERN in front of the overlook at the visitor center that
walked back and forth for about 20 minutes before it skulked off. We also had
several HOODED MERGANSERS, RING-NECKED DUCKS, MALLARDS, RED-WINGED
BLACKBIRDS, a PEREGRINE FALCON, and both TREE and BARN SWALLOWS in the area.

The wind and the rain kept the waterfowl numbers down but we did see
PINTAIL , SHOVELERS, AMERICAN WIGEON, a EURASIAN WIGEON, GREEN-WINGED TEAL,
LESSER SCAUP. CACKLING and CANADA GEESE as well as BUFFLEHEAD and AMERICAN COOT.

Song birds were hard to find but the group that did the complete walk fared
better in the afternoon. They did well on the new boardwalk wit HORNED
and EARED GREBE, GREATER SCAUP, BARROWS GOLDENEYE, BLACK BRANT, SURF SCOTER,
and DUNLIN.

The only mammal seen was a GRAY SQUIRREL getting into the trash can at the
visitor center.

For the day we saw 62 species (my count) and now have 88 species for the
year.

Until next week, when we hope for better weather....

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