SMNWR, flamingo location, etc.

On the refuge tour today, we found the flamingo on the north end of Mounds 3, roughly the same location it favored several months ago. Best access on foot is at the T-dike, gate 130.

East River Pool had 39 Am. Avocets (my high count for SMNWR), Black-necked Stilts, and plenty more to make this a worthwhile stop.

With the tide high in the bay, Lighthouse Pool and Tower Pond had thousands of shorebirds with good variety but nothing unusual. Several Canvasbacks on Lighthouse Pool among several other duck species. Most of the ducks on Mounds 3 were on the distant west side, but a walk in from the south end as far as the first water control structure would be productive, with good duck numbers and diversity, shorebirds, and both dark ibis.

Two flyover Snow Geese at Tower Pond; two very pale Red-tailed Hawks, but not quite to Krider’s paleness, near the snag forest north of Headquarters Pond.

Pretty good day. Glad I wore my long johns. Matt Johnstone