Tweets,

Yesterday 40+ of us enjoyed a great walk at Nisqually. The day started out cool and overcast but the sun broke through about 10:30 and it warmed up quickly. We had a 0.9 low tide at 2:25 so no one walked the estuary boardwalk.

Highlights were Shorebirds and Rails. On the surge plain in the reclamation area we had GREATER YELLOWLEGS, WESTERN SANDPIPERS, and LEAST SANDPIPERS. Some of the folks in the trail group had a WILLET with the YELLOWLEGS.

On the interior pond off the new dike we had LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS, WILSON'S SNIPE, and KILLDEER. While scoping these out we came across juvenile SORA and several VIRGINIA RAIL, mostly juveniles. Near the start of the estuary boardwalk we had an adult VIRGINIA RAIL foraging in the cattails. We also had an AMERICAN BITTERN in the cattails in the same area.

Waterfowl numbers are way down as the water levels on the freshwater ponds continues to diminish. We did manage to spot HOODED MERGANZERS, WOOD DUCKS, MALLARDS, GREEN-WINGED and BLUE-WINGED TEAL, as well as CANADA GEESE.

For the day I had 47 species with nothing new for the year.

Mammals seen included BLACK-TAILED DEER, COTTONTAILED RABBIT, and MUSKRAT.

Until next week when Eric and Shep lead in my absence...

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at aol.com
Lacey, WA