Tweets,

Yesterday a dozen of us enjoyed a great walk at Nisqually. It was ugly at
the start, rainy and breezy, but it soon cleared and we had great
conditions after that. It was overcast but about 50 degrees or so the rest
of the morning. We had a 7.3 low tide at 10:25 so lots of mud outside the
dikes. Did I say we had lots of water in the ponds?

Highlights of the day include relocating the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK and
finding a GREAT HORNED OWL on the nest.

Waterfowl were scattered throughout the refuge as all the ponds are full
after the recent rains. Too many places for them to roost far away from the
trails. We did have a female COMMON GOLDENEYE on the big pond between the
entrance road and the parking lot, and a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS on the
pond behind the visitor center.

There were a couple of RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS in the wood line near the
maintenance area and we had several DOWNY WOODPECKERS throughout the refuge.

The RED-SHOULDERED HAWK showed up in the yellow dogwood trees along the old
McAllister Creek trail and was seen from the twin barns boardwalk. We were
watching a very dark RED-TAILED HAWK when the RED-SHOULDERED flew in and
ran it off.

The GREAT HORNED OWL was sitting on its nest in the nest tree from 2 years
ago, inside the boardwalk between the twin barns turn off and the Nisqually
side. The nest hole is more exposed than it was two years ago as some of
the covering branches have been knocked down.

For the day I saw 45 species doing just the twin barns loop and I still
have 149 species for the year.

Until next week....

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at gmail.com
Lacey, WA
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