By about 7:05 it was light enough to bird, so off we started (Brian Bell and
I). The morning was warm and overcast and by midmorning had cleared to a
beautiful day. There was no wind and no fog. You know it's an interesting day
at Marymoor when after the first 40 species you still haven't seen Rock Dove or
European Starling, and Red-tailed Hawk is the 50th species seen.

Highlights:

Green Heron 1 at the weir
Gr. Wh-fronted Goose 3 with Canadas near west park entrance
American Wigeon 1 male at Rowing Club
Green-winged Teal 5 females at Rowing Club
Northern Shoveler 7 in slough at NW corner of park, noon
Osprey 1 over meadow, 10:00A
Cooper's Hawk Great views as it stopped at the compost piles
American Kestrel 1 chased by crows, E. Meadow, 10:00A
Common Snipe At least 7 in the Pea Patch
Northern Shrike 1 around noon near grass soccer fields
G.-crowned Kinglet 6-8 in mixed flock with RCKI, BCCH, BEWR
Y.-rumped Warbler Ubiquitous, almost all Myrtle's race
Fox Sparrow Incl. 1 "RED Fox Sparrow" (see below)
Western Meadowlark 3 in East Meadow
Purple Finch 3 eating ash tree seeds
EVENING GROSBEAK 1 female at Rowing Club - NEW to my Marymoor list!

Picked up Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco near the Clise Mansion,
and had Red-breasted Nuthatch at the feeder across the street from the Rowing
Club.

All told, 54 species!

The red Fox Sparrow was very much like the "red (taiga)" pictured in Sibley, if
you discount the extreme garishness of the orange tones reproduced in [at least
my copy of] that book. Upon seeing the bird, my first thought was that it was
a large, extremely pale Song Sparrow. However, it had Fox Sparrow shape and
size, and had the yellow mandibles (the bottom one almost completely yellow,
the top one mostly yellow). The legs were notably long and pink. The breast
and flank spotting was nicely chevron-shaped like you'd expect with a Fox
Sparrow. It had a WHITE breast and belly except for the spotting. The tail
was bright orange-red. The face was patterned as in Sibley - the warm gray
ruff and face with the red auricular "arrow", and the red crown stripes.

The bird appeared redder than the *iliaca* race pictured in the NGS guide -
though we were seeing it in the open in very good light. [BTW, I think the
shape of the Fox Sparrows NGS 3 are terrible] The bird looked very much like
the "Eastern race" pictured in the Stokes guide.

In Byers, Curson, and Olsson's "Sparrows and Buntings", it looked more like the
picture of *iliaca* than like *altivagans* - there was considerable contrast
between the gray and the red on the face. In Rising's "Guide to the Sparrows"
the picture of *ilicia* seems a bit brighter than the bird we saw, but
otherwise very similar.

For someone who has never seen "eastern" Fox Sparrows, it was hard to believe
that this was a Fox Sparrow.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== Hummer at isomedia.com
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm