December 25, 2007
Christmas Day and we know how to live it up on a holiday, yes? (laughing at us!). We have been curious for a good while about this place, having passed it by many times going from here to there and back again. Mark suggested we head there and I was all over it. Taking an interest in bird photography lately, it hit the spot in more than one way. The trip there was HORRID. We almost turned back. Not only was the rain coming down hard, but it turned into snow and a good job of it too. We decided to press on. What a good decision it turned out to be. It was as though we had called ahead and reserved a special weather window just for us. The rain only just began to start in again as we finished up the 5 mile loop. The refuge is a wonderful place to stretch a leg, being flat and well maintained, and to look at beautiful water fowl.

January 25, 2008
Another visit to the refuge EARLY in the morning. Having read that the best times to visit are dawn and dusk, we arrived about 45 minutes after sunrise today. There is a cold snap going on in this region right now and everything is mostly or completely frozen. As we venture out on the main walking path, bright eyed and bushy tailed, we see....nothing. Finally a group of huddled black (ducks?), bundled together under a sorry looking pile of marsh grass, catch our eyes. We are more awake than they are!! As the morning wore on, the birds finally began to come to life and we did after all have a very pleasing time enjoying them.

March 16, 2019
After living in Colorado for a decade, then moving back to the Pacific Northwest, this was our most extensive exploration of the refuge to date. Over 7 miles of walking saw us covering every area and habitat we previously had missed, seeing new-to-us species of gulls and ducks we had not seen in the refuge before. Enjoyed the sea mammals as well!

Nisqually refuge is well worth returning to again and again.