Hi Tweets - Brian Bell, Hugh Jennings, and I took a leisurely walk through a
rather quiet Marymoor Park this morning. There was early fog which cleared to
a sunny, windless day. Total bird numbers were low, but the variety was great,
with lots of "good" ones:

Green Heron Two together near RC dock
Canada Goose One small one in with hoarde - Aleutian?
Gadwall 10 in slough north of bridge - first in months
Osprey Over weir - later over boardwalk
PEREGRINE FALCON Immature over Interpretive Lot
Cooper's Hawk In kettle with Peregrine
Sharp-shinned Hawk In kettle with Peregrine
Virginia Rail One called loudly from north of weir
American Coot First raft of fall 2001 - about 40 on lake
Red-breasted Sapsucker One near east end of boardwalk
AMERICAN PIPIT 1 at east end of interpretive trail
Yellow Warbler Two sightings
Bk-throat Gray Wblr Nice male near start of boardwalk
Fox Sparrow First fall sighting for 2001
Lincoln's Sparrow Pea Patch and compost piles
Golden-crowned Sparrow 2 near my car - first of fall 2001

The PEREGRINE circled over the parking lot with both accipiters circling above
it. One accipiter, probably the Cooper's, stooped towards the northwest
flushing a huge flock of starlings. It might have been successful, as it
didn't reappear. Then the peregrine stooped towards the same flock, still on
high alert from the first hawk. Needless to say, it never got close to
anything. It's youth was showing.

Still some "summer" birds - one or two 1st-year male BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, two
or three SWAINSON'S THRUSH at the snowberries, a handful of VIOLET-GREEN
SWALLOWS, and quite a few BARN SWALLOWS.

The AMERICAN PIPIT was early; previous pipit sightings were 25-Sep-97,
30-Sep-99, 02-Oct-97, 09-Oct-97, and 21-Oct-99, so September 10 is definitely
early. The FOX SPARROW was also 10 days earlier than our previous first fall
records (20-Sep-00 and 21-Sep-95). The GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS were at the
early end of right on time; other first fall records being 11-Sep-97,
13-Sep-00, 19-Sep-96.

All told, 48 species. Hugh paid the price for leaving early, missing more than
half of my highlighted species.
Misses? No flycatchers or vireos. We usually see Western Tanager at this time
of year, but none today. Also dipped on Bushtit, which should be common now.