I was afraid when the weather report called for "patchy morning fog". That
usually means thick pea soup at Marymoor, but when I got there it was merely
patchy in the park too, and by about 8:30 that had cleared. There was a
gorgeous sunrise, some beautiful foggy scenes, then a very nice sunny day.

Birding was average, though very pleasant. I was joined by Kathy Hornbein, and
we met with several nice mixed flocks along the way. Nothing much unusual
though. Alone afterwards I stopped at the Rowing Club and found several more
species.

One notable thing is that the lake level has risen 1.07 FEET since last week,
and 1.46 feet since two weeks ago. The water was over the path just before the
boardwalk and I had to wade through 8 inches of water -- I forgot my tall
boots :(

The bird highlights:

Common Loon 1 out on the lake
American Wigeon About 4 pairs at the Rowing Club
Dunlin? Flyby of 4 heading north from the lake
Barn Owl Great look at the Rowing Club
Cedar Waxwing 3 - uncommon this late
Northern Shrike 1 just west of the slough
Yellow-rumped Wblr 1 - uncommon this late

All told, around 44 species. Dunlin would be new for the Marymoor list if I
had been able to be certain. LOTS of sparrows, both in terms of total numbers
and in species count (Song, Fox, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, plus
Dark-eyed Junco and Spotted Towhee).

At about 7:45, the sun was rising behind the fog, and a Belted Kingfisher was
silhuetted on a pole in the mist. Later, while we walked the boardwalk in the
sunshine, we could see that literally every branch and twig was enmeshed by
spider's webs, all glistening.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== hummer at isomedia.com