Tweets - the weather was much better than I expected this morning. We had
one strong gust of wind just before we started, but for the most part there
wasn't even a noticable breeze. We could see Jupiter (I think, maybe it was
Saturn) as we started, but then the clouds thickened. We had a very nice
sunrise after which the sun rose above the clouds and we were in darkness
again. It was WARM (over 50 degrees), and the rain held off until we were
past the boardwalk. The rain, however, proceeded to get harder and harder
as we went along.

Highlights:

Green-winged Teal 6 at Rowing Club ponds
Bald Eagle 2 adults flying NW from lake
Sharp-shinned Hawk? Brief look at an adult.
Brown Creeper One, or maybe two, in big woods
VARIED THRUSH Beautiful male near Big Sit circle
Y-rumped Warbler Still a few around; both Aud. and Myrt.
WH-THR. SPARROW In blackberries at SW corner of parking lot
Purple Finch One male at S end of dog area

The BALD EAGLES were only the second sighting since summer - we had one
sighting in October.

The ACCIPITER was just SE of the east footbridge (south of the East Meadow).
We had just a momentary sighting before it dropped out of the bush and
disappeared. It was clearly an adult (and hence not the same SHARP-SHINNED
juvenile that we've been seeing the last 3 weeks). It was probably a
Sharpie, but given the length of time I watched it, I can't rule out a male
Cooper's.

This was only our 12th VARIED THRUSH sighting at Marymoor (though I have not
done a lot of birding around the conifers near the Mansion during winter, so
I may have missed some). This was our first December sighting, though there
have been two sightings from the 3rd week of November previously. Eight
sightings have been between late September and the end of October. We've
had one spring sighting, March 19, 1998. FYI - the "Big Sit circle" was
where I did a Big Sit a few years ago. It's just south of what is known as
Dog Central, the dog swim area with the bulletin board. At the Big Sit
circle, a short narrow path links the slough trail and the interior of the
dog area. Both the east and west ends of the narrow path can be great
spots. The VATH was just south of the east end, in a large cottonwood.

This was just our 11th WHITE-THROATED SPARROW sighting at Marymoor, but our
7th of 2002. Whether this indicates an increase, a persistant individual,
or increased observer awareness remains to be seen. Just about the first
bird we saw this morning, it made a nice start! We last saw it fly NW from
the parking lot, so it may be along the slough trail on the way between the
dog area parking lot and the windmill.

We ended up with 47 species for the day; still at 134 species for the year.