Tweets,

Today 30 of us enjoyed a great day at Nisqually. It was clear and 30
degrees at the start and didn't warm up much until later in the day.
We had a 14.0 tide at 1:51 so we had incoming water when we got out to
the estuary boardwalk.

It was slow early and there weren't many waterfowl about as most of
the ponds were frozen, or at least had skim ice. Out on the salt
water side there were lots of waterfowl.

Highlights included a couple of VIRGINIA RAIL inside the boardwalk on
the way to the twin barns at the second overlook, an AMERICAN BITTERN
in the marsh along the estuary dike, and a GREAT HORNED OWL along the
east side of the refuge, seen from the double benches overlook.

Another highlight was an AMERICAN/EURASIAN WIGEON that was out along
the first leg of the estuary boardwalk. It looked like an AMERICAN
WIGEON except it had chestnut where the AMERICAN would have green.

We also had small flocks of BUSHTITS and PINE SISKINS. Couldn't find
any REDPOLLS with the SISKINS.

For the day I had 45 species and now have 140 for the year. The only
mammal I saw was a HARBOR SEAL in the Nisqually River.

Until next week......

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at gmail.com
Lacey, WA