Tweets

The weather last night and the weather report for today made me less than
hopeful, but we actually had a wonderful morning, with broken clouds early, a
good hour of SUNSHINE, then clouds moving in with a touch of drizzle. The
rain, however, held off until afternoon. I was joined by three others, and we
racked up the species count, although we were somewhat lacking in great views
of the birds today for some reason.

Highlights as follows:

Wood Duck Drake flying up the slough
American Kestrel Over East Meadow
MERLIN Flying west - long look at the rear end of a merlin
SORA Rowing Club ponds - NEW BIRD FOR MARYMOOR
Barn Swallow 1 near weir - First of spring
Or.-crowned Warbler Saw 1, heard several more
Y-rumped Warbler The place was *alive* with male Audubon's race
Common Yellowthroat Heard about 10, saw 3 males. First of spring.
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 near compost piles
Brewer's Blackbird Had a pair at start of Interpretive Trail on MONDAY

Breeding evidence:

Great Blue Heron 1 flying SW with nesting material
Mallard Female possibly on nest at Rowing Club
Marsh Wren One visiting nest
Bewick's Wren Continue to bring nest material to box along slough
C-b Chickadee Apparently nesting in hole in a cottonwood
European Starling One in nest hole in a cottonwood
American Robin 1 with nesting material, 1 on nest
Song Sparrow Copulation observed

The SORA was at the west end of the big pond at the Rowing Club, visible
through a little gap in the reeds. We all were able to see it, though when we
were heading out it was no longer there. The funny thing is that as we got to
the boardwalk today, I exclaimed to Brian Bell that "Someday we'll see a Sora
at Marymoor".

We had a bit of a surprise in that there was a large flock of gulls on the
grass fields early this morning. There were about 60 Mew Gulls, some
Glaucous-winged Gulls, one California Gull, and one Ring-billed Gull. We
usually don't get flocks of gulls like that in April. This was the latest
spring record for Ring-billed Gull.

All told, 57 species today. Monday's Brewer's Blackbird, plus today's Merlin,
Sora, Barn Swallow, and Common Yellowthroat bring the 2002 total up to 86.

I will not be doing the survey next week (Spring Break in Texas), but Brian
Bell should be there at 7:00 to lead it in my place. Thanks Brian.

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