There is a weekly birding walk at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge every Wednesday, led by Refuge Volunteers. The birders meet at 8 a.m. at the Refuge Visitors’
Center and follow a route along the boardwalks, the north dike, and some of us
go all the way out to the end of the McAllister Creek estuary boardwalk.
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| Refuge Volunteer Coordinator David True briefs the birders on trail conditions |
Today, about 25 of us met on a beautiful autumn day, with
cloudy skies in the morning and partly sunny skies in the afternoon. Fall temperatures were from 50-70ºs Fahrenheit. There was a Low -0.45 foot Tide at 9:16 a.m.,
flooding toward a 13.23-foot high water at 4:29 p.m.
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| Refuge Volunteer Shep Thorp leads the gaggle of birders on the boardwalk |
Highlights
included two Wilson’s Snipe and a Cinnamon Teal at the Visitor Center Pond
Overlook, a continuing Red-shouldered Hawk, nice mixed flocks with warblers on
the Loop Trail including several Hermit Thrush, a Kestrel and Peregrine Falcons.
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| Immature Male Wood Duck |
Starting out at the Visitor Center Pond , we had nice
looks of Wood Duck and Hooded Mergansers.
We saw three California Scrub Jays in the parking lot, and also had
sightings of Mink and Long-tailed Weasel.
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| Scrub Jay |
The Orchard was good for Spotted Towhee, newly-arriving
Golden-crowned Sparrows, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, Bewick’s
Wren and Cedar Waxwings. I missed seeing
a Swainson’s Thrush flying behind the Education Center and the three Band-tailed
Pigeons flying overhead. Across from the
entrance to the Education Center was a nice mixed flock of Ruby and Golden-crowned
Kinglets, and both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.
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| Orange-crowned Warbler |
The field between the Access Road and Entrance Road is
now flooded providing habitat for our First-of-the-Season Ring-necked Ducks, as
well as Cackling Geese, Pintails, Green-winged Teal, Wigeon and Wood Ducks. Two American Pipits were heard and seen
flying overhead, and a Red-tailed Hawk was seen perching on a limb. I noted that it had been dry here while I was up in Alaska, but recent showers had "resurrected" the Licorice Ferns.
We had a nice mixed flock along the Access Road gave us
views of Yellow and Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hermit Thrush,
Red-shafted Flickers and Purple Finch.
The Red-shouldered Hawk was vocalizing in the stand of willows southwest
of the west parking lot.
Along the Twin Barns Loop Trail, we had to pay due respect to a Bald-faced Hornet nest, but had nice sightings of
Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hutton’s Vireo, Pacific Wren, and early
Fox Sparrows. This is always a good
place to see warblers in migration, and today we got to see Common
Yellowthroats, Yellow, Orange-crowned, Wilson’s and Black-throated Gray
Warblers. The Pacific Wrens were especially
vocal this week. I missed seeing a late
Willow Flycatcher, observed by some of our group at the Twin Barns cut-off.
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| Black-throated Gray Warbler |
The Twin Barns Overlook was great for observing Turkey
Vultures, Common Raven, and another Red-tailed Hawk soaring on the
thermals.
We picked up hundreds
of transient Barn and Violet-green Swallows foraging high over the fresh water marsh. Quite a few more were feeding lower over the salt marsh,
with some perching in the willows along the dike.
Out on the dike we had great looks of American Kestrel,
Peregrine Falcon and Bald Eagles.
On the
mud flats were mostly Ring-billed Gulls, although several Glaucous-winged
Gull-types and a few Caspian Terns were still around. With the low tide, Identification skills were
put to the test for distant ducks and peeps.
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| Ring-billed Gull |
Thankfully, Great Blue Herons, Savannah and
White-crowned Sparrows, American Goldfinch and Marsh Wrens were much closer.
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| Curious Great Blue Heron |
The Refuge is having a section of the estuary boardwalk repaired, due to erosion at its base due to tidal action.
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| Had they just known 12 years ago that restored estuaries might erode . . . |
After the ‘official’ walk, volunteer Shep Thorp and I
went out at 2:30 p.m. to catch the incoming high tide, and had nice looks at four
Whimbrel. We counted 10 Black-bellied
Plover a bit further out and west of Leschi slough. On our return, we picked up a vocalizing Hammond’s
Flycatcher along the east side of the loop trail, and nice looks at Hairy
Woodpecker, Brown Creepers, and more Yellow and Black-throated Gray Warblers.
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| Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus |
It was nice to see 70 species for the day, as well as a
couple of mink, a Long-tailed Weasel, Eastern Gray Squirrels, and Columbia
Black-tailed Deer.
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| White-crowned Sparrow |
Nisqually NWR morning eBird
Checklist is Here
Nisqually NWR afternoon eBird Checklist is Here
Not A Bird: Mantid populations had been largely unknown in Washington State, except for a rare small, 1-inch-long, gray native species in the sagebrush areas of eastern Washington. In recent years, however, the habit of gardeners purchasing and releasing egg cases of non-native Carolina, California, and Chinese mantids, have introduced and increased the presence of praying mantis in Washington. We saw several at the Refuge today.
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