Tweets,

Today 25 of us enjoyed a productive, if snowy walk at Nisqually. It
was cold at the start and began to snow about 9:30 or so and continued
snowy for the rest of the walk. Still it was a good day. We had a 4.9
tide at 12:08, so lots of mud in the reclamation area.

Highlights included BARN OWL and AMERICAN BITTERN. the BARN OWL was
seen inside the boardwalk between the visitor center and the forest
trail on the Nisqually side. It was in a cavity in a big leafed maple
tree. The is a clump of licorice fern on the right side of the tree
and the owl is in the cavity next to the fern.

The BITTERN was in the cattails just at the start of the marsh near
the estuary boardwalk.

We also had a EURASIAN WIGEON in a flock of AMERICAN WIGEON in the
pond inside the estuary dike. And we had COMMON GOLDENEYE and SURF
SCOTERS on McAllister Creek along with more WIGEON, BUFFLEHEAD and
HOODED MERGANSER.

For the day I had 42 species with BARN OWL, BITTERN and SURF SCOTER
being new for the year. I now have 63 species for the year. The only
mammal I saw was a RIVER OTTER near the turn off to the twin barns.

Until next week when Shep will lead in my absence...

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at gmail.com
Lacey, WA