Two of my friends and I visited NWR on Labor Day, arriving about 9am and
leaving about 1pm. We walked the four mile round trip from the
Visitor's Center to the end of the new boardwalk and were well rewarded
for our efforts. The highlight of our day was a Western Kingbird,
feeding from the branch of a tree just behind the first platform on the
new boardwalk. The branch is low and we were able to get within ten
feet of so of it by positioning ourselves when he flew away to snatch
his prey. This was a first for my friends, the first one I had seen in
western Washington and the closest.

The second-best sighting was the Bittern in the middle of the
lagoon--just a short distance before the trail ended back at the parking
lot. This was a first for all three of us. In both of these cases, we
were indebted for the sighting to photographers who pointed them out to
us--two different photographers to whom we were most grateful.

Other birds we saw included:
1. a small mixed flock of Chickadees in the branches near the trail
shortly after the first curve of the boardwalk.

2. A half dozen Mallards in the lagoon a little farther along who were
fishing and (seemed to be) socializing; no green heads.

3. Several Great Blue Herons, one of the most beautiful birds in America,
I think. The first one we saw joined the ducks while we were watching
them, but we saw at least a dozen of them during the course of our
walk--fishing, swooping over the water, and even "dancing," as one of
my friends described their behavior. It was exciting to have one land
about 6 feet from us at the intersection where the dirt trail turns
towards the barns. There were a several people in the area, but no one
moved, so he stayed there, sort of preening for several minutes.

4. Song sparrows including one that skittered here and there along the
boardwalk, but could not seem to fly. When charged by a toddler who
escaped momentarily from his father's restraining hand, the bird
escaped into the brush. Although I have a song sparrow that lives in the
brush pile in my yard, I have never been as close to it or any other
sparrow as we were there.

5. A couple Yellow Warblers and, I think, a Wilson's, but we heard many
more warblers in the trees around us.

6. While we were stopped to try to spot the warblers, we were entertained
by a hummingbird, flitting among the orange tubular flowers.

7. A juvenile Red Tailed Hawk that posed on one of those dead tree trunks
across from the dirt/gravel path to the new boardwalks. His dominantly
white breast and tail made my friends skeptical of my ID, but the recent
pictures of these juveniles in Living Bird made me insist. Fortunately
another group of birders came along and confirmed it. Later, on the
hike back, he was still in the area, but a little father away. We were
impressed with how easily he blended with the dead tree trunks.

6. A small family of 5 Least Sandpipers.

7. An Osprey--fishing.

8. Seven Bald Eagles. The first one we spotted was perching near the
walk, and my friends were excited because they had not seen "a real
live one" previously. Later we watched many of them in the distant
trees to the East of the Estuary and saw several of them take flight.

Of course, there were:
9. a dozen Canadian Geese gliding along on the river close to the
opposite bank as we walked along the trail. (Maybe Cackling--I'm not a
good judge of size). They stopped a couple places and some of them
walked onto the beach and stayed for awhile. Then the others would start
gliding away, and the beach walkers would join them again.

10. and many gulls.

The weather was perfect although the sun did become quite warm along the
water before we left. After watching so many fishers, we could not
resist lunch at the Oyster Bar in Olympia, and that was excellent, too.