Tweets,

Today 6 of us endured a wet and windy walk at Nisqually. It was a day fit
for ducks and that is mostly what we saw. Passerines were a lot smarter
than we were and mostly remained under cover.

Highlights included the GREAT HORNED OWL adult and 2 owlets at the nest
hole, a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK with prey and both COMMON and BARROWS GOLDENEYE at
the Nisqually River overlook.

The GREAT HORNED OWL adult sat just outside the nest hole and there was 1
youngster on the branch beside her (him?) and the other owlet was in the
nest hole. There was a little scrambling when the outside owlet wanted to get
inside. A little pushing and everything was okay.

There was a male and 2 female BARROWS GOLDENEYE and a female COMMON
GOLDENEYE on the river in front of the Nisqually overlook and later we saw a male
COMMON GOLDENEYE on the pond behind the visitor center.

The SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flew into the woods near the Nisqually overlook with
unidentified prey and proceeded to enjoy lunch. Never did get a definitive
look at the prey but it was fairly large and seemed to slow the bird down.
We saw no other raptors during the walk.

There is still a good variety of waterfowl about but numbers are way down
from previous months. Now all we need is for the spring migrants to show up.

For the day we saw 37 species with the SHARP-SHINNED HAWK being new for the
year.

The only mammal we saw was a RIVER OTTER in the slough behind the twin
barns.

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

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