I went out to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge this
morning. Refuge volunteers lead a bird
walk there every Wednesday morning, meeting at 8 a.m. at the Visitors’
Center. About 18 birders showed up this morning to go
out in the rain for a day’s birding. (In
the Pacific Northwest, if you don’t recreate in the rain, you don’t recreate
very much….). The long-time "leader of the gaggle", Phil Kelley was not able to make it out today, but Refuge Volunteer Shep Thorp ably led the day's excursion.
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| Nisqually Birders in the rain |
Our “usual” route leaves the Visitors’ Center, passes
through the old Browns Farm orchard, loops along a service road back to the
Twin Barns boardwalk and along the west side of the pond to the Twin
Barns. A ‘snack break’ at Barns’
overlook at around 10 a.m. is where several of the group usually call it a
morning and return.
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| Nisqually Twin Barns |
The remainder of
the group follows the North Dike a half-mile to the west. The south side of the dike is mowed field and
freshwater cattail marsh, whereas the north side of the berm allows good views
of the Surge Plain. Today’s 14.8-foot high
tide at 10:08 a.m. pretty well inundated this area, and pushed the birds toward us for
good views of meadowlarks, waterfowl and shorebirds. Again, a portion of the group usually turns back at this point. An immature Northern Shrike was exceptionally cooperative, giving us good views.
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| Immature Northern Shrike |
Five of us stalwarts continued out on the Estuary
Boardwalk, which stretches north from the dike for a mile along Shannon Slough
and McAllister Creek to the Refuge Boundary with the W.D.F.W. Wildlife
Area. The distal 400 meters of the walk
is closed until the end of the waterfowl hunting season (at the end of January), as the State allows
hunting on their property, and the seasonal closure ensures safety for the
Refuge visitors. While we were out, the tide was ebbing toward a mid-low water of 6.9 feet at 4:17 p.m.
But, even from the truncated terminus, we have decent
views of the estuary at the mouth of McAllister Creek and out into Nisqually Reach,
where birders can get distant views of several of the salt-water species not otherwise
seen from the dike. Along the boardwalk,
we had good studies of Least Sandpipers and gulls.
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| Least Sandpipers |
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| Ring-billed Gull Adult |
This is the heart of the “Hybrid Zone” for Western X
Glaucous-winged Gulls. The birds run the
gamut from those that look pretty much like “pure” Glaucous-wings to those that
approach mostly-Western plumages.
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| Glaucous-winged Gull |
This bird above has somewhat darker primary tips than, maybe, a
‘good’ Glaucous-wing would have, but I imagine that most of us identify birds
like this as Glaucous-wings.
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Olympic Gull
This bird above, on the other hand, has a much darker mantle and
nearly black primary wing tips. The
head, however, is not quite the all-white that I’d expect on a ‘pure’ Western
Gull.
|
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| Adult Bald Eagle "under the canopy" |
The return route is to the Nisqually River overlook, and
back to the Visitors’ Center via the boardwalk along the east side of the Twin
Barns loop trail. Here, we saw a Great
Horned Owl glumly waiting out the rain in a copse. Also, there was an eagle under the canopy of
the maples and cottonwoods, rather than out in the open where we usually see
them.
We die-hards returned to the Visitors’ Center a little
before 3:30 p.m., somewhat damp, but having had a great day birding.
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