[Tweeters] Nisqually on Wednesday.

[Kenneth Brown]

A different experience from last week.  It was unseasonably warm, sunny and not very windy.  The only environmental  distraction was the presence of strands of spider web drifting in the air, catching on clothes, hair and equipment, seemingly everywhere but especially noticeable out on the McCallister Creek boardwalk.  Apparently this is how young recently hatched spiders like to travel this time of year.  A highlight was a FOY Northern Shrike hunting the freshwater marsh.  Biggest miss was dipping on Red-shouldered Hawk.  The complete list is as follows:
 
Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually NWR, Thurston, Washington, US
Oct 18, 2023 7:57 AM - 4:13 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.32 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Wednesday Walk. 28 birders. The morning started as partly cloudy, calm and 55° F, clearing and warming to a clear and sunny 70° F afternoon.  There was a +13.3-foot high tide at 9:15 a.m., ebbing to a +7.4-foot low water at 2:46 p.m.  Mammals seen included Columbian black-tailed deer, Eastern grey squirrel, as well as a feral house cat near the visitors' center parking lot.  It was warm, so had many dragonflies and a yellow Sulphur butterfly.
67 species (+4 other taxa)

Snow Goose  1
Greater White-fronted Goose  68
Cackling Goose (minima)  900
Northern Shoveler  2     Estuary restoration area
Gadwall  12
American Wigeon  900
Mallard  155
Northern Pintail  1125
Green-winged Teal  550
Surf Scoter  18     Nisqually Reach
Hooded Merganser  2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  28
Anna's Hummingbird  3
Black-bellied Plover  4
Dunlin  24
Least Sandpiper  2
Western Sandpiper  22
Long-billed Dowitcher  125
Wilson's Snipe  6
Spotted Sandpiper  1     McAllister Creek west shore
Greater Yellowlegs  32
Short-billed Gull  7
Ring-billed Gull  185
California Gull  3
Glaucous-winged Gull  1
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)  3
Western/Glaucous-winged Gull  4
gull sp.  250
Common Loon  2
Brandt's Cormorant  7     Nisqually Reach channel marker
Double-crested Cormorant  50
Great Blue Heron  24
Northern Harrier  2
Sharp-shinned Hawk  1
Cooper's Hawk  2
Bald Eagle  8
Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/alascensis)  2
Belted Kingfisher  2
Downy Woodpecker (Pacific)  3
Northern Flicker  2
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)  1
Merlin  1
Peregrine Falcon  2
Northern Shrike  1     Cattail marsh
American Crow  75
Common Raven  4
Black-capped Chickadee  22
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  7
Bushtit (Pacific)  38
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  6
Golden-crowned Kinglet  5
Brown Creeper  2
Pacific Wren  7
Marsh Wren  4
Bewick's Wren  11
European Starling  285
American Robin  46
Cedar Waxwing  16
American Pipit  6
House Finch  2
Purple Finch (Western)  1
Pine Siskin  25
American Goldfinch  2
Fox Sparrow (Sooty)  6
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)  1
Golden-crowned Sparrow  6
White-throated Sparrow  1     Orchard
Song Sparrow  34
Spotted Towhee (oregonus Group)  10
Western Meadowlark  1
Red-winged Blackbird  75

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S152642913
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