Yep, the kestrels are all over down here. Lots of red-tails and eagles, too.. and a few harriers. Haven't seen any other raptors that I could get a good ID on, though I did see what looked like a roughie sitting on a treetop a couple of weeks ago. I get the impression so far that this area has decidedly smaller variety of birds, though that may change come spring... January isn't the best time of year to judge how "birdy" a given location is. I know I'll have to go up toward Olympia or out to Willapa Bay to see shore birds, but hopefully there'll be a decent number of songbirds and the like once the weather warms up. I'm jealous of all the people seeing things like Townsend's warblers and varied thrushes and such though...She has her eye on you!
Daren and I drove through Centralia Tuesday on our way home from Vancouver. Looked like a lot of kestrels sitting on telephone wires along I-5.
I assume you're being facetious here, Bill... But yes, Nisqually is a relatively short hop for me now, just 35 miles or so up the freeway. Too far for visiting more than once a week or so, due to gas consumption (my Jeep is a thirsty brute!), but close enough to keep an eye on owl nests, etc...I recall some kind of small wildlife refuge northeast of Centralia, but I cannot recall its name or exact location.
Might have been Scatter Creek, which is north of Centralia and just west of I-5, or maybe the Skookumchuck Unit, which is almost due east, off highway 507... it's part of the Scatter Creek system, but not geographically connected. There's also the West Rocky Prairie unit, a couple of miles out of Tenino... Any of those ring a bell?Actually, I was not being facetious. Once when we were riding motorcycles on back roads east out of Centralia, I did see a sign for some kind of wildlife refuge. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name or locate it on a map. My recollection is that it was not very big. Maybe someone will know of it.
Giannine? Yeah, she mentioned she ran into you and you said something about her being "one of Rocky's harem"... She wasn't quite sure how to take that. LOL! She's a friend I met at Juanita and have been helping out now and then with her photography... She'd been using the bottom-rung 75-300 without IS, and wondered why her shots all came out soft... I let her shoot with my 100-400 for a day, and she went out the next week and bought one, was amazed how much difference good glass makes. Now she's saving up for a 7DII...Not ringing any bells. I met one of your proteges, Janine with a G, today at the fishing pier.