Tweets,

Today 11 of us enjoyed a nice walk at Nisqually in cold but clear
conditions. It was 31 at the start and didn't warm up much, but it was
dry and no too breezy. We had a 15.5 high tide at 9:38 so there was
lots of water outside the dikes. Most of the interior ponds were ice
covered.

Because of the ice covered ponds waterfowl were pretty scarce with
nothing unusual for the day. We did have a couple of WILSON'S SNIPE by
the mouth of the spring off the visitor center overlook and we got
great views of a BEAVER out on that pond.

In the orchard we had a nice mixed flock that included both KINGLETS,
both CHICKADEES, BROWN CREEPER and GOLDEN CROWNED SPARROW. Along the
maintenance road we had both HAIRY and DOWNY WOODPECKER.

Raptors seen included several BALD EAGLES, RED-TAILED HAWKS, NORTHERN
HARRIERS, and PEREGRINE FALCON. We did see all three MERGANSERS and
had GREATER YELLOWLEGS and DUNLIN out on the surge plain.

For the day I had 46 species and now have 53 for the year. The only
mammal seen was the BEAVER.

Until next week.

Phil Kelley
scrubjay323 at gmail.com
Lacey, WA