Tweets,

Today 20 of us walked Nisqually in cool, drizzly conditions. We had a 12.2 ft high tide at 11:50 so there was a good bit of water at the estuary boardwalk,

Highlights included the GREAT HORNED OWL family, 2 EURASIAN WIGEON and a hybrid AMERICAN/EURASIAN WIGEON.

We were fortunate to see the OWLS from both sided of the twin barns boardwalk. Eric spotted the 2 juveniles from the last overlook before the twin barns and JC picked out the adult nearby. The adult was below the juveniles in the same tree. On the way back along the Nisqually River side we got better views of them, but this time the adult was perched between the 2 young. Never did find the other adult.

Both EURASIAN WIGEON and the hybrid were in the interior pond along the new dike. One was first seen from the twin barns overlook and later seen from the dike. Closed to the new dike was the second EURASIAN WIGEON and the hybrid that showed a rusty head with the eye patch of an AMERICAN WIGEON. The cream colored top patch was much paler than on a normal EURASIAN WIGEON.

There was many YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS on the refuge for the first time this year and had 3 woodpecker species: FLICKER, HAIRY WOODPECKER and DOWNEY WOODPECKER. At the visitor center at 1:00 there was a nice male WOOD DUCK, the first of this year for me.

After the walk I took a quick run to Luhr Beach and saw BRANT, COMMON and RED-THROATED LOONS, SURF and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, COMMON GOLDENEYE and both COMMON and RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS.

For the day we had 59 species so things are looking better. the only mammal seen was an EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL near the twin barns.

Until next week...


Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com