Subject: [Tweeters] Nisqually NWR 10/5/16
Date: Oct 6 03:31:13 2016
From: Phil Kelley - scrubjay323 at gmail.com


Tweets,

Yesterday 25 of us enjoyed a pretty good day at Nisqually. It rained heavy
before we got there but we only had intermittent light showers for our
walk. Also, we are starting to see the ponds begin to fill up. I believe
the folks who walked the estuary boardwalk got more rain than the rest of
us.

Waterfowl are beginning to return in force. We had several hundred CACKLING
GEESE as well as AMERICAN WIGEON, NORTHERN PINTAIL, and GREEN-WINGER TEAL
in abundance throughout the refuge.

There was a female HOODED MERGANSER on the pond at the visitor center at
the start of the walk and a PIED-BILLED GREBE there at the end of the walk.

Raptors are also returning in good numbers. We had a COOPER'S HAWK at the
start of the boardwalk and a PEREGRINE FALCON in the big doug fir inside
the boardwalk. Later in the walk we saw NORTHERN HARRIER, AMERICAN KESTREL,
BALD EAGLE, RED-TAILED HAWK, and another PEREGRINE FALCON.

>From the estuary dike we saw several GREATER YELLOWLEGS and both WESTERN
and LEAST SANDPIPERS. We also had a small flock of WESTERN MEADOWLARKS in
that area.

Passerine numbers are down but we did see several YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE and both KINGLETS also were
seen.

It was a good day for woodpeckers with RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER being seen in
the orchard, DOWNY WOODPECKER and FLICKER being seen along the twin barns
boardwalk, and a PILEATED WOODPECKER was working a snag along the Nisqually
River.

For the day I had 48 species and still have 142 for the year. The only
mammal I saw was BLACK-TAILED DEER.

Until next week...

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at gmail.com
Lacey, WA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20161006/ee2df335/attachment.htm