Tweeters,

I led a Black Hills Audubon Society field trip to West Rocky Prairie in Thurston County this morning.? This is a relatively new unit of South Puget Sound Wildlife Area and offers a good variety of prairie, forest, oak woodland, and wetland habitats.? Although the prairie area is fairly large,?it apparently isn't quite large enough to attract a large variety prairie bird species.? We had a total of 58 species, with the prairie species being lots of Savannah Sparrows, good numbers of Chipping Sparrows around the edges, two Northern Harriers, and an American Kestrel.? Best birds of the day were a Virginia Rail with a brood of 6 small black chicks that most of us saw and a Peregrine Falcon soaring over the prairie.? The entry road leading through secondary forest to the prairie was particularly birdy, with good numbers of warblers and other migrant songbirds.?

Gary Wiles
Olympia, WA
wilesharkey at yahoo.com