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 1 - Squirrel ! !

One of the banes of the backyard bird feeder is that the squirrels often get more seed than do the yard birds.  In our area, the main squirrel species seen is the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Eastern Gray Squirrel - Sciurus carolinensis

Introduced eastern gray squirrels and eastern fox squirrels (S. niger), and native California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) and Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) may compete for food and habitat with western gray squirrels (S. griseus) in parts of their range in Washington.  These species are expanding their ranges in Washington and overlap in places with the State-Threatened Western Gray Squirrel in the southern Puget Trough or in parts of Okanogan, Chelan, Yakima, Klickitat, and Skamania counties.  A Univ. Washington PhD student investigated the interactions between the Eastern Grays and the Western Gray Squirrels at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and concluded that there were few competitive interactions between western and eastern gray squirrels largely because of differential habitat use.  This pattern may not hold true in other locations where western gray squirrels and introduced squirrels may occupy the same habitats.

These eastern grays are not native to our State!  According to the State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, they were first introduced into Washington in 1925.  "They are now common in many cities, and thrive in developed areas."  They certainly thrive in my West Olympia neighborhood, and most other cities and 'burbs around here.  Where I grew up in the Willamette Valley in the 1970s or so, it certainly appeared that when the eastern grays and the fox squirrels showed up at my folks' place, the western grays got pushed out.

They're somewhat of a pest.  Besides consuming a high percentage of the birds' feed, they chew up the feeders.  And, they strip our western redcedar and incense cedar trees' bark to make their nests.  While it's a good thing for them to have the aromatic cedar oils at 'home' to deter fleas and ticks, their exfoliation of the trees' bark appears to get pretty close to the cambium layer in a few spots.  With four of these things in the yard this morning, it might be time to heat the oven for Squirrel Pot Pie!

The birds get out of the squirrels' way, and this morning the juncos, finches, towhees and Eurasian Collared Doves vied for their share of the seed mix.

Female House Finch

Male House Finch

Oregon Junco male

Female Oregon Junco

Female Spotted Towhee

The Eurasian Collared Dove is also an Introduced Species - I don't know why I feel less animosity toward them than I feel for the squirrels.  Must be a cultural thing?

As their name implies, Eurasian Collared-doves (Streptopelia decaocto) are native to Europe and Asia.  D'uh.  It is thought that these invasive, non-native birds made their way to the North American continent from releases in the Caribbean.  They were established in the Bahamas in the 1970s when about 50 birds either escaped or were released.  By the 1980s, they made the jump to Florida.  It is unclear how they did it, but they could have made the trip on their own, or they could have blown to shore during a hurricane or there could have been other escapes or releases. Either way, they have been expanding across North America ever since.

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared doves had reached Texas, Colorado & New Mexico in 1995. They expanded into Utah and Montana in 1997 and into Oregon & Wyoming in 1998.  They reached Arizona in 2000 and California in 2001, and expanded into Idaho until 2005.  The earliest eBird record I can find for Washington was from Jefferson County's Gardiner Beach in 1983!  The Eurasian Collared-Dove is now found extensively throughout the state.

They are not regulated by the State's hunting laws, and are described as "delicious"....

On a non-birding note, Marty & I walked south from the house to pick up a Oly Cheesesteak sandwich at Wally's and adjourned across Harrison to the newly-opened Headless Mumby Brewing Company, and met one of the owners, Keith.  He & his business partner Alex specialize in Lagers. We each had a pint of his Dark Czech lager, and were favorably impressed - and, it went well with the cheesesteak!

Keith pouring 1/2 litre pints at the Headless Mumby

And, a pleasant clientèle is reminded that, in a good pub, one doesn't stare at one's &^#@ cell phone!