An absolutely glorious morning with incredible sunshine. Later on it got a bit
cloudy and windy, but the first 2+ hours were magical. I was joined by 4
others at various times to enjoy the show:

CINNAMON TEAL Drake at lake platform.
Red-tailed Hawk Lots of activity near odd-snag nest
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD Brief look at 1 male - first of spring
Hairy Woodpecker Best look ever at a pair, plus female digging
nest
Tree Swallow Many back (15+), all noisy and landing on
trees
Violet-green Swallow 1 in park, 2 over houses west of park
Orange-crowned Warbler Almost certain that's what we heard singing near RC
SAVANNAH SPARROW Brian Bell had 3 before 7:00 am at model airfield
Western Meadowlark Four in East Meadow

Plus muskrat, turtles (1 Red-eared Slider and a bunch of box turtles), and two
orange striped garter snakes.

The CINNAMON TEAL was my first at Marymoor since May 2, 1996. This was my
eighth sighting for this species at Marymoor. I did also see a hybrid
Blue-winged Teal x Cinnamon Teal on May 6, 1999 at the Rowing Club ponds. All
previous sightings of Cinnamon Teal were between April 20 and May 23, so this
sighting is outside of the window in which I have ordinarily seen them by quite
a bit! (Blue-winged Teal sightings have also all been during that same period
except for one June sighting).

In between yesterday and today, the number of Salmon Berry bushes with blossoms
went from about 1 in 1000 to 1 or 2 percent, and along with that came our first
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD.

We came across a HAIRY WOODPECKER pair working over the base of a large
cottonwood near the east end of the boardwalk. The sun was at our backs, and
we watched the pair for several minutes in great light. They looked
magnificent against the moss. The female was bright white and jet black. The
male was more muddy, with a definite warm gray wash over his white parts
(except maybe his supercillium). On his breast you could actually see circular
pale white dots on the gray breast (looking like confetti). His red spot
shined! Later we found a female Hairy Woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a
snag right on the slough directly opposite the south end of the Rowing Club
dock. If she is successful in making a nest there, there will be wonderful
opportunities for watching from the bench at the end of the dock.

The SAVANNAH SPARROWs that Brian saw were the first reports from Marymoor this
spring. I could not find them later.

All in all, a great day with 49 species.

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