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kknightI've had enough of all coronavirus news all the time. I declared a moratorium on paying attention to it today. Instead it is time for another segment of my November trip report. Having finally made it across the mountains to the west side of Washington in my last post, this one starts out at my uncle's house in Lacey on November 13.
I wanted to get up and out early in the morning but my cousin N. wanted to join me and she's not an early riser. (As far as I know, none of my Washington family are early risers. Getting people related to my mother to get up and moving in the morning is difficult or impossible.) We did eventually get out of the house and headed over to Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped at the refuge store where we borrowed binoculars for my cousin then went for a walk. The weather was overcast and gray but not actively raining. (November is not the right time to go to western Washington if you want to see the sun.)
This is the marshy area behind the office/store building. There were a few ducks and a heron there, but not much going on in comparison to my past visits.
There are a lot of grassy fields for the geese to feed in. Most of these geese are Cackling Geese, which look like a smaller version of a Canada Goose. There were several Greater White-fronted Geese way out in the distance but they're not identifiable in this photo.
This is another marshy area where there were ducks.
Further out there were areas with higher grassy vegetation and a few trees.
And beyond those areas were tidal marshes. The tide seemed pretty low when we were there.
My cousin was taking photos with her phone.
There's a nice boardwalk that I've never gotten to walk on. The last time I was there they were in the process of building a new boardwalk. This time it was closed because they were repairing a section that got washed out. I went back a few days later and it was open, but my uncle was with me and he couldn't walk that far, so I still haven't been out on that boardwalk.
This is the view looking back from near the entrance to the boardwalk.
There's an overlook platform on the side of the Nisqually River.
The short loop trail also has a lot of boardwalk.
As is common in the Pacific Northwest, the tree trunks had moss and lichen growing on them.
I took photos of birds, of course.
An immature Northern Shrike was hanging out on a dead snag out in the marsh. It was a long way away, so my photos aren't great. It eventually flew over the path and into the area on the other side of it, but my efforts to get a photo when it was closer came to naught.
Cackling Geese
A male Northern Shoveler. These ducks were incredibly hard to get a decent photo of because they spent most of their time with their heads underwater.
A male Hooded Merganser
This Great Blue Heron was right on the path and didn't care about people walking by.
Afterward we went back to my uncle's house. I let him talking me into going out to a "quick inexpensive lunch" with him. It was around 4 PM and the place we went was actually a fairly expensive seafood restaurant on the water front. He was right that it was possible to get a relatively inexpensive meal of clam chowder there, but overall it was not cheap. Once we were there he told me to go ahead and order whatever I wanted, which ended up being halibut with mango salsa. Halibut is one of my favorite fishes to eat and I never get to have it at home so I do try to eat it when I'm in Washington. It was really, really good.
I wanted to get up and out early in the morning but my cousin N. wanted to join me and she's not an early riser. (As far as I know, none of my Washington family are early risers. Getting people related to my mother to get up and moving in the morning is difficult or impossible.) We did eventually get out of the house and headed over to Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped at the refuge store where we borrowed binoculars for my cousin then went for a walk. The weather was overcast and gray but not actively raining. (November is not the right time to go to western Washington if you want to see the sun.)
This is the marshy area behind the office/store building. There were a few ducks and a heron there, but not much going on in comparison to my past visits.
There are a lot of grassy fields for the geese to feed in. Most of these geese are Cackling Geese, which look like a smaller version of a Canada Goose. There were several Greater White-fronted Geese way out in the distance but they're not identifiable in this photo.
This is another marshy area where there were ducks.
Further out there were areas with higher grassy vegetation and a few trees.
And beyond those areas were tidal marshes. The tide seemed pretty low when we were there.
My cousin was taking photos with her phone.
There's a nice boardwalk that I've never gotten to walk on. The last time I was there they were in the process of building a new boardwalk. This time it was closed because they were repairing a section that got washed out. I went back a few days later and it was open, but my uncle was with me and he couldn't walk that far, so I still haven't been out on that boardwalk.
This is the view looking back from near the entrance to the boardwalk.
There's an overlook platform on the side of the Nisqually River.
The short loop trail also has a lot of boardwalk.
As is common in the Pacific Northwest, the tree trunks had moss and lichen growing on them.
I took photos of birds, of course.
An immature Northern Shrike was hanging out on a dead snag out in the marsh. It was a long way away, so my photos aren't great. It eventually flew over the path and into the area on the other side of it, but my efforts to get a photo when it was closer came to naught.
Cackling Geese
A male Northern Shoveler. These ducks were incredibly hard to get a decent photo of because they spent most of their time with their heads underwater.
A male Hooded Merganser
This Great Blue Heron was right on the path and didn't care about people walking by.
Afterward we went back to my uncle's house. I let him talking me into going out to a "quick inexpensive lunch" with him. It was around 4 PM and the place we went was actually a fairly expensive seafood restaurant on the water front. He was right that it was possible to get a relatively inexpensive meal of clam chowder there, but overall it was not cheap. Once we were there he told me to go ahead and order whatever I wanted, which ended up being halibut with mango salsa. Halibut is one of my favorite fishes to eat and I never get to have it at home so I do try to eat it when I'm in Washington. It was really, really good.
