Day 219: From the Nature Center at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, a boardwalk takes you almost two miles out into the tidal delta, passing first through a brushy forest which serves as habitat in season for a variety of migratory birds, then travelling out above the mudflats until terminates at a gazebo overlooking southern Puget Sound. Geese, gulls and herons are common here, searching among the pools and mounds of seaweed for small fishes, mud shrimp and other delicacies for the avian palate. A keen observer may spot other shorebirds: sandpipers, dunlins, terns. In the woodland, feathered songsters flit about during the months of spring and summer, playing "dodge the photographer" with amazing skill. The trees and shrubs resound with the calls of the Yellowthroat, Wilson's, MacGillivray's, Yellow and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but the eye seldom catches more than a flash of color and the lens even less unless one is endowed with a surfeit of patience and an abundance of time. Still, the music of their songs is enough to draw any serious birder back again and again.
No Warblers crossed my field of vision today, although I spotted one Chickadee and several Song Sparrows. Swallows were flying above the flats by the thousands, and geese could be heard honking throughout the day. The weather was a bit too blustery and cold for me to do more than walk out to the gazebo today, but I'll be back. Those Warblers were calling my name.
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