Tweets,

It was nice to walk Nisqually and not have to dry the optics after we were
done yesterday. It turned out to be a very nice walk in overcast but dry
conditions. 29 of us did the walk and we had a 2.7 low tide at 12:48 so
there was lots of mud along the estuary boardwalk.

Highlights included seeing all 4 GREAT HORNED OWLS and our first of the
year VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS and LINCOLN'S SPARROW.

The owlets are out and about inside the twin barns boardwalk along the
Nisqually River side. Our early departures spotted a lone adult and we were
able to add the other adult and both owlets later when we came through the
area. More eyes do help in locating things. The adult and two young were
deep in woods well hidden close to a trunk. The adult and one of the young
were perched next to each other and the other young was on the opposite side
of the trunk. the lone adult was closer to the visitor center just over
the big root ball in the alder patch.

We picked up several SWALLOWS over the ponds and identified them as TREE
SWALLOWS with a couple of VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS over the twin barns. The
LINCOLN'S SPARROW popped out of the brush where the trail leads to the new
dike near the twin barns. It stayed up on a blackberry vine for a minute or
so before it dropped down into the weeds.

For the day I had 44 species with the VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW and LINCOLN'S
SPARROW being new for the year.

The early crew, Shep, JC, Matt went out to Luhr Beach before the walk and
picked up BLACK BRANT and RED-NECKED GREBE to name a few of their sighting
that weren't seen by the rest of the group.

Until next week when we should have a better tide.....

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