The Nisqually Delta
The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge is on the delta. It is a riparian woodland, with huge cottonwoods and big-leaf maples, with non-native grasslands and wetland meadows. McAllister Creek, the Nisqually River and Red Salmon Creek flow through the Refuge and then flow into Puget Sound. Both saltwater and freshwater animals mingle here - the long-tailed weasel, the harbor seals and river otters, mergansers and cormorants.
Many of the apples below this tree had been nibbled by critters, and deer droppings - fresh - were on the ground. The perimeters of the dike have large stands of blackberry canes, rosehips, and crabapples which attract evening grosbeaks and cedar waxwings.
The calls of birds were everywhere - especially the thrushes, juncos, and flickers. I thought since it was lightly raining, everything would be hushed and still, but the sounds were robust and celebratory. 
A storm front was coming in, and with it, snow and dropping temperatures. The Canadian Geese here were in the thousands, flocking up, and feeding in the grass. The shallow seasonal marshes, which dry out in summer, refill in the fall and winter, and are prime feeding areas for these migrating birds.
These two old barns, built around 1903, were once part of Alson Brown's farm, which had a dike around 1,000 acres. This kept the saltwater out, and provided pastureland for his cattle. In recent years the land has been allowed to become the delta floodplane again, and the texture of the land is reverting back to the way it originally was a hundred years ago. The old barns are now used as educational labs and research stations. An Environmental Education Coordinator is available to meet with teachers and group leaders to help plan field trips for students interested in learning about the cultural history of the watershed, the cycles of nature, birds and migration cycles, and endangered species.
We've lived here for 19 years now, and hiked along the thickets, the boardwalks, and along the dike at least twice a year, during the summer and fall. It is one of our favorite places. That is George in the distance, in full rain-gear, checking out a blue heron.
The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge is on the delta. It is a riparian woodland, with huge cottonwoods and big-leaf maples, with non-native grasslands and wetland meadows. McAllister Creek, the Nisqually River and Red Salmon Creek flow through the Refuge and then flow into Puget Sound. Both saltwater and freshwater animals mingle here - the long-tailed weasel, the harbor seals and river otters, mergansers and cormorants.
Many of the apples below this tree had been nibbled by critters, and deer droppings - fresh - were on the ground. The perimeters of the dike have large stands of blackberry canes, rosehips, and crabapples which attract evening grosbeaks and cedar waxwings.
The calls of birds were everywhere - especially the thrushes, juncos, and flickers. I thought since it was lightly raining, everything would be hushed and still, but the sounds were robust and celebratory. 
A storm front was coming in, and with it, snow and dropping temperatures. The Canadian Geese here were in the thousands, flocking up, and feeding in the grass. The shallow seasonal marshes, which dry out in summer, refill in the fall and winter, and are prime feeding areas for these migrating birds.
These two old barns, built around 1903, were once part of Alson Brown's farm, which had a dike around 1,000 acres. This kept the saltwater out, and provided pastureland for his cattle. In recent years the land has been allowed to become the delta floodplane again, and the texture of the land is reverting back to the way it originally was a hundred years ago. The old barns are now used as educational labs and research stations. An Environmental Education Coordinator is available to meet with teachers and group leaders to help plan field trips for students interested in learning about the cultural history of the watershed, the cycles of nature, birds and migration cycles, and endangered species.
We've lived here for 19 years now, and hiked along the thickets, the boardwalks, and along the dike at least twice a year, during the summer and fall. It is one of our favorite places. That is George in the distance, in full rain-gear, checking out a blue heron.
