December 26 - Shut Down - But Not Shut Out

Every Wednesday at 8 a.m., Refuge Volunteers lead a bird walk at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.  I arrived at the Refuge a little before Eight, only to find the gate locked, and I thought that perhaps the notice that the NWR would remain open to the public was incorrect.

But, the gate is on a timer, set to open at “Sunrise”, which was 7:58 a.m. today at this latitude, and it swung open for us right on time. 

With Ol’ Orange-Hair throwing his tantrum and having shut down the 25% of the Government that was not yet funded, the staff at the Refuge were busy ‘mothballing’ the place, locking offices, securing equipment, and posting signage to inform the American Public who don’t deserve this Political Travesty.  What a bunch of ....

In all, 16 folks joined the walk this morning, all pretty happy to be birding, and we set off in a light rain to see what could be seen.

The rain kept a lot of the passerines under cover, which somewhat diminished our species list, but the rain let up a bit later in the morning.  Trying to see wet woodpeckers against wet tree trunks and limbs is always challenging

Wet Red-breasted Sapsucker

Wet Downy Woodpecker

But the waterfowl don’t mind a little rain.  We had a pair of Snow Geese fly in

 

All-white Adult Snow Goose - showing the dark "grin patch" on its pink bill

The immature Snow Goose has a lot of gray in its plumage

and a few dozen Canadas

Big Honkers

mixed in with the Cackling geese and dabbling ducks

Hen Northern Pintails 
Great Blue Herons seem likewise dismissive of precipitation

The wealth of wintering waterfowl, combined with the run of Winter Chum Salmon in the Nisqually River, draw a lot of Bald Eagles to the place.  We didn’t see quite as many as last week, but it’s still nice to stand in one spot and see over two dozen eagles!

Immature Bald Eagle

A 15.61-foot high tide at 8:52 a.m. was ebbing toward a +6.56-foot low water at 2:51 p.m., so the die-hards amongst us continued out on the Estuary Boardwalk during high water, but it was a mud flat when we came back.

The mid-high tide affords pretty good views of gulls and shorebirds,

This "Olympic Gull" is lunching on a piece of Starry Flounder

Western Sandpipers are fairly uncommon here in the Winter

But they often come in close to the boardwalk

The Least Sandpiper is the World's Smallest Shorebird - and has yellow legs

as areas to perch are limited at this water level.

Glaucous-winged Gull watching the River Run By . . .

On the way back to the Visitors’ Center, the skies opened yet again.  We ‘dipped’ on seeing the Great Horned Owl, as well as several other expected birds, like Fox Sparrows, etc., but the worst day birding is better than the best day working.  I hope to see you at the Refuge one of these Wednesdays.

Nisqually eBird Checklist is Here