Nisqually Estuary 4/1

On the morning after the Pack Forest, we drove over to the Nisqually Estuary to visit the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We learned some of the history of the area, such as its previous occupation as farm land until 40 or so years ago when it was converted into a refuge. We then took a walk on the board walk that parallels the Nisqually River, and observed many birds, such as robins, brown creepers, canadian geese, coots, ducks, sparrows, shovelers, and barn swallows. We also saw two great horned owls perching near each other. One about halfway up a snag near the trunk a hundred yards away or so, and the other in an alder right next to it. We only saw them through binoculars mainly, but not much later we saw a juvenile red-tailed hawk up close perched only about 15 or so feet away in an alder, which then flew 20 to 30 yards away to a cotton wood a little higher up. The dominant trees were alders, big leaf maples, and cottonwoods. The board walk took us by a stream that flowed into the estuary that ran somewhat parallel to the Nisqually River. The stream was surrounded by many salmonberry bushes and stinging nettles. We took the boardwalk to a more muddy and salt water environment that is recovering due to the recent demolition of the dike, with lots of saplings coming up. We caught a rare sighting of an American Bittern, and saw ducks diving for food and two shovelers swimming together in a circle. I'm not sure if it was a mating ritual or not, but one appeared to be male, since it was more brightly colored, resembling almost a mallard, but with a different bill. There were very few trees due to the former pasteur lands, but more were psrouting up, although the path was too far away to identify them. We also observed two great blue herons, and a seagull flying overhead, and large congregations of canadian geese just about everywhere.
Species List:
american bittern
shovelers
mallards
brown creepers
canada geese
american robin
red tailed hawk
himalayan blackberry
salmonberry
red alder
bigleaf maple
great horned owl
barn swallow
ferns
great blue herons
sparrows

Julkaistu kesäkuu 4, 2012 06:05 IP. käyttäjältä drwlyons