Tweets - a great day this morning at Marymoor. Six of us birded the usual
rounds under dense overcast, with many interesting sightings.

COMMON LOON Three at the north end of lake
D-c Cormorant One over lake
Green Heron At least 4
Osprey Two, pair? Hunting over slough
Cooper's Hawk Nice look over weir late, stooped
CASPIAN TERN Four over north end of the lake
Black Swift Perhaps 50
Red-eyed Vireo At least 1 in the willows. First of spring.
EASTERN KINGBIRD? Possible sighting flying W from E Meadow
Lazuli Bunting Nice male near first bench
Bullock's Oriole A first-spring male

The COMMON LOON were our first-ever summer sighting for this species. Common
Loon have been observed on occasion thoughout the period from the middle of
November through the third week in May. The only previous sighting for June,
July, August, September, or Octover was an uncertain sighting from Aug 21,
1997.

Similarly, the DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT was just our second-ever June sighting,
the other being from June 6, 1996. The only other sighting between May and
October is a sighting from August 29, 1996.

One of the OSPREY caught a fish at the north end of the lake and was challenged
by a couple of the CASPIAN TERNs and by an unidentified gull, but it escaped
with its prize.

The possible EASTERN KINGBIRD sighting comes very close seasonally to the only
other sighting of the species that I've had at Marymoor, which came on June 11,
1998. As we walked north along the path next to the south end of the East
Meadow, we saw a bird fly west which looked charcoal above and white below,
bigger than a swallow, with a fairly slow flight with shallow wingbeats. It
quickly disappeared behind the row of willows, but both Brian Bell and I felt
that we were likely right in our ID. Brian *thought* he saw a white terminal
band.

The BLACK SWIFT were scattered all over the park, with a few birds overhead
most of the morning. At one point, Jeff Swift pointed out about 50 birds a
mile away over the model airplane field which we were pretty sure were all
Black Swift.

Many sightings of BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, with extensive, LOUD singing. Also,
many sightings of BAND-TAILED PIGEON all morning long, all over the park.

All together, we had 52-53 species, and we had a very good time.