April Date "Night"

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Some of our date "nights" that Steve has arranged are day trips(he has set up a date once a month through December). This month it was supposed to be to the Air Museum in Seattle, but because the winters are wet and long here, we decided to change plans. On a not exactly warm, but sunny day, we went to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is closing in order to remove some dikes blocking seawater from covering land at the mouth of the Nisqually River. The dikes were built in the 1800's in order to establish grazing land for livestock. In the process many wetlands and the estuary were compromised and many species of birds and sea creatures suffered. We have always wanted to visit and this was one of the last chances to do that in it's current configuration. One small dike will be retained, so there will still be a hiking trail, but not near as many as now. This is a good thing they are doing, reclaiming this land and restoring it to its natural state. I'm sure if we looked around, there are many areas that could use some restoring. Spring was definately in the air as you can see by all the pairs of birds. I don't think we saw any by themselves.
We also observed turtles, frogs plus many types of songbirds not to mention many trees and shrubs in bloom, as well as daffodils and other natural flowers. It was an awesome place to observe wildlife in all its beauty. If you enjoy the outdoors, it's a great place to wander on a sunny day.

There was a lot of "honking" and nest protecting. There was even a sign in one area warning of a very aggressive daddy goose. It was best to not wander off the path.

This Merganser is not alone,

just couldn't get them both in the picture

American Coots

Mallards
Huge flocks of Canadian geese