Hi Tweets,

Twelve of us enjoyed another birdy day at the Refuge with mostly cloudy
skies, temperatures in the 50's degrees Fahrenheit, and a low 5'0" tide at
12:39pm. This week our big excitement was 9 different raptors with a
Red-shouldered Hawk first of the year, a big change from last weeks
shorebird activity.

Western Scrub-jay, Mallard, and many Green-winged Teal were observed along
the entrance road. Hundreds of Cackling Geese circled around the Refuge and
flew south up into the Nisqually Valley. Starting at the Visitor Center
Pond Overlook at 8am, we were greeted by a Peregrine Falcon, Cedar Waxwings,
Red-winged Blackbird, Spotted Towhee, Black-capped Chickadee, American
Robin, and Northern Flicker.

The flooded fields between the Access Road and the Entrance Road were very
productive with a roosting flock of 120 or more Long-billed Dowitchers. As
we scanned for any Short-billed Dowitchers, which incidentally we did not
see, a Virginia Rail came out of the Rushes and perched on some vegetation
to preen in the sun. The whole group had great looks while the Rail seemed
to warm up, coincidentally another birder reported seeing similar behavior
in this same area two to three weeks ago. Diving in the water, a female
Lesser Scaup, our first of Fall. As well we saw Northern Shoveler, Northern
Pintail and American Wigeon all foraging.

>From the Access Road, viewing the fields south of the Twin Barns, 200
Cackling Geese were observed feeding in the fields, we scoped one Aleutian
subspecies in the group of Minimas.

On the western portion of the Twin Barns Boardwalk Loop Trail we saw Song
Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Pied-billed Grebe, Marsh
Wren, Brown Creeper and a second Peregrine Falcon. Numbers of warblers were
less, we did see Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

At the cut off to the Twin Barns, we noticed Vaux's Swift and Violet-green
Swallows flying overhead. One Tree Swallow in the group with a larger tail
and lacking the white saddle bags on either side of the rump that's evident
on the VGSW. Down low, we observed a nice mixed group of sparrows including
great looks at singing Fox Sparrow, Lincoln Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, and
Golden-crowned Sparrow. At the Twin Barns Overlook, additional sparrows
seen were White-crowned Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow. We also observed
Common Yellowthroat and Northern Harrier. A third Peregrine Falcon was
scoped on one of the snags in the restored Riparian Area just north of the
new dike, which was brown-gray with a large white face patch including the
auricles and light supercilium/lateral crown stripe. We speculated this
Peregrine Falcon may be a tundrius subspecies or immature bird, in
comparison to what we presume is our more normally seen pealei subspecies.

Heading out on the new dike, we observed our first accipiter, probably a
Sharp-shinned Hawk, and picked up a late Yellow Warbler. We spent some time
scoping the mud flats or surge plain north of the restored riparian area
north of the new dike. One of our members spotted a small buteo over by the
Nisqually River Overlook. This buteo raptor had no belly band and a barred
tail, the brown head was lighter then a Red-tailed Hawk with a light
supercilium and light face, the throat and bib were white and brown spots
were on the sides and belly in rows. After a minute, the buteo flew with
broad fingered wings and a long tail, smaller then a Red-tailed Hawk, very
slight light crescents were visible on the inner primaries. Several of
us had good brief visual looks, and Dave who was birding with another group
saw the bird independently, and we agreed we had a Red-shouldered Hawk
sighting! Other raptors seen were a female American Kestrel, adult Coopers
Hawk, a forth Peregrine Falcon, additional Northern Harriers (immature and
female flying side by side), and a kettle of 15 Turkey Vultures.

The mud flats north of the new Estuarine Dike Trail were busy with
waterfowl. The numbers of shorebirds were down in comparison to last week
with only 10-15 Black-bellied Plover seen and 3 Greater Yellowlegs.
Glaucous-winged Gull, Western x Glaucous-winged Hybrid (Olympic) Gull,
Ring-billed Gull and Mew Gull were seen. Additional Virginia Rails were
seen/heard on the inside of the dike trail near the boardwalk. Between the
entrance and the second shelter of the New Estuarine Boardwalk Trail, we
added Double-crested Cormorant, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Hooded Merganser and
a Great Egret out by McAllister Creek. Bald Eagles were working on both
nests along the creek.

On are way back to the visitor center, we saw Greater-white Fronted Geese, a
flock of 30 flew over the parking lot just as I was leaving. We added
Bewick's Wren and Pacific Wren to our list along the eastern section of the
Twin Barns Boardwalk Loop Trail, plus close views of an immature Red-Tailed
Hawk. Eric had seen a Snow Goose with the Cacklers over the weekend, and
Marian, the Refuge Biologist, saw a Snow Goose during the day, again with
the Cacklers.

So another super day with 73 species. The Red-shouldered Hawk was new for
the year making our annual species count 167.
Eastern Gray Squirrel and Raccoons were mammals seen.

Until next week at 8am, good birding!

Shep Thorp
Browns Point
sthorp at theaec.com
253-370-3742
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