December 12 - Nisqually Refuge

I went out to the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge today, where 22 birders enjoyed participating in the weekly “Wednesday Bird Walk”

Nisqually Birders

on a cool (low 40°s) morning with high overcast.  The “leader of the gaggle”, Refuge Volunteer Phil Kelley, noted that “the birds cooperated.”

I noted several hundred crows leaving their roost to the east of the Nisqually River as I drove in.  When I arrived at the Visitors’ Center at 8 a.m., there was a Peregrine Falcon in the snag-top of a large Douglas Fir tree, and a pair of Hooded Mergansers joined the Mallards on the pond.

Lots of Mallards on today's walk

Our ‘usual’ route proceeds from the Visitors’ Center past the Environmental Center and into the old Brown’s Farm orchard, which has some ‘legacy’ apple and pear trees.  The group

Refuge Volunteer Shep Thorp Digiscopes a Sapsucker

had good views of a Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, a couple Anna’s Hummingbirds, Song, Fox, and Golden-crowned Sparrows, Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Brown Creepers.

Exiting the orchard, a Red-tailed Hawk posed for the group

Red-tailed Hawk sittin' on a limb

As we came around the service road and onto the west side of the Boardwalk Loop, Anders pointed out a group of 16 Snow Geese that were flushed by a Bald Eagle, and settled in with the Cackling Geese.

There were lots of Bald Eagles on the Refuge today, including this scrappy pair of immature birds

While we were on the boardwalk, a guy came along with a retriever on a leash.  The dog was not well-behaved, straining against the leash, pulling toward people for a ‘pet’, and such.  We told him that dogs were not allowed on the Refuge, and he said “This is a “Service Animal”.  Dubious, we let him know that his out-of-control dog was not a Service Animal, and shouldn’t be there, but he had no shame and bulled his way past us.

The Refuge Volunteers are not Law Enforcement, and - Bless Their Hearts - are not confrontational.  In fact, most of us Washingtonians are only slightly less confrontational than Canadians.  So, this jerk took his dog for a walk on a National Wildlife Refuge in flagrant disregard of the Rules, of the wishes of other Refuge visitors, and the needs of the Wildlife.  There's a special place in Hell for nice people like him . . .

We had ‘brunch’ at the Twin Barns, where a nice spike buck browsed on Himalaya Blackberry leaves,

Spike Buck - Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

and an Eastern Gray Squirrel came up to us, begging for peanuts or whatever.  Obviously, people have been feeding this little moocher.

Eastern Gray Squirrel - a non-native species here

Then, we headed out onto the north dike where we observed the wintering pair of Peregrines on a snag in the restoration area

The larger bird on the left is the female, her mate above right

and saw quite a few Bald Eagles.  The eagles are drawn to the Refuge by the late run of chum salmon in the Nisqually River.

A group of us continued along the north dike, and out to the gate near the end of the estuary boardwalk as the high tide was ebbing.  The receding water allowed good views of Least Sandpipers

Least Sandpipers are more brownish on their backs, and have yellow legs

and Dunlin,

Dunlin are such a handsome shorebird!

and we found a single Western Sandpiper in the flock.  Western Sandpipers can be common - even abundant - along the Coast, but they are a fairly uncommon wintering bird at Nisqually.

Western Sandpiper shows a more light-grey plumage, and has dark legs

Of course, if you want really yellow legs, there's always the Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca

We had good studies of the gulls.  Ring-billed Gulls fed on green shore crabs close to the boardwalk,

Ring-billed Gull with Green Shore Crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis

and the large “pink-footed” gulls allowed us to differentiate the more-or-less “pure” Glaucous-winged Gulls

The Glaucous-wings have pale gray backs and primary feather tips of the same pale gray

from the more-obviously hybrid “Olympic” gulls which are crosses between the Glaucous-wings and Western Gulls.

"Olympic Gull" showing dark primaries and darker grey mantle, but with dusky feathering on the head

This pair of gulls at the Nisqually River overlook showed a nice “pure” Glaucous-wing on the right, and a bird on the left that we would probably tally on eBird as a Glaucous-wing, but it shows more of a bit of dusky in the primaries.

At the north end of the Estuary Boardwalk, we spied a dead California Sea Lion, but it was too far off to know what caused its demise.

Stranded Sea Lion carcass

I reported this to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Stranding Hotline at 1-866-767-6114. The woman who took my information was very professional, but obviously 'not from here', as she was unaware of the location of Nisqually Refuge, etc.

We did not find the Great Horned Owl that had been perched off the east side of the boardwalk loop for the past three weeks, and it was fairly quiet bird-wise on our return to the Visitors’ Center.  All told, we saw 68 species, and had a pretty good day, in spite of the cool temperatures.

Just another Great Blue Heron

Nisqually eBird Checklist Here

December 5 at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

I drove out to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge for the weekly Bird Walk.  There were about 20 participants, mostly ‘regulars’, but a few new folks assembled with us at 8 a.m.

Nisqually Birders

The birds were pretty active in the Orchard this morning, as soon as the sun came up.  We found a very busy mixed-species feeding flock of chickadees and kinglets, and found a Hutton’s Vireo in the group.  There was a lot of ice on the Visitors’ Center pond, but a few dozen ducks were active and keeping patches of open water.

Female Shoveler in front, Mallard hen in back.  Keeping the ice open

We were thrilled to see a Trumpeter Swan do a fly-by, and three Snow Geese came in to land south of the north dike.

Adult (left) and two immature Snow Geese

A couple black-tailed deer were grazing along the way.

Columbian Black-tailed Deer fawn

We had our usual ‘brunch break’ at the Twin Barns overlook, then continued out to the dike and the estuary boardwalk.

Birding the North Dike at Nisqually

The mid-low tide was +6.2 feet at 10:11 a.m.,

Nisqually surge plain at low tide

flooding toward a 14.0-foot high water at 3:27 p.m., so we started out on the boardwalk with a lot of mud showing, and the tidal push brought the ducks and peeps in for closer looks by the time we returned.

Nisqually surge plain at high tide

A couple of drake Eurasian Wigeon showed-off their red heads and gray flank plumage

Drake Eurasian Wigeon - Mareca penelope

Compared to the American Wigeon with their gray heads and rufous flank feathering

American Wigeon drake - Mareca americana

Many of the wigeon were feasting on sea lettuce.  From the holes in the leaf, I would guess that this is Ulva fenestrata

Salad for lunch

Other water bird species included, among others, Green-winged Teal, Pintails, and shorebirds

Greater Yellowlegs

Least Sandpiper showing its yellow legs.  Our other common sandpipers have dark legs

Green-winged Teal hen

Unfortunately, the north wind blew in some plastic trash – including this Mylar Murrelet.  Plastic balloons cause thousands of wildlife mortalities each year – especially in marine waters where albatrosses and sea turtles mistake them for their usual prey:  Jellyfish

There's no escaping the trash . . .

At the Nisqually River overlook, several California Sea Lions were hunting chum salmon on the flood tide

California Sea Lions Zalophus californianus, one of the 'eared' seals

This muskrat was so intent on feeding on aquatic forbs that it paid no attention to the many birders 10 meters away!

Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus focused on its lunch

There is no sign-up requirement to attend a Wednesday bird walk at Nisqually.  An entrance fee of $3 per car is required, unless you have one of the many Federal Lands Passes (Interagency Annual Pass, Senior Pass, Access Passport, Federal Duck Stamp, or an Annual Refuge Pass) which entitle you to ‘free’ admission.  Hope to see you there one of these times.

Winter Hornets' Nest

Nisqually NWR eBird Checklist Here