Hi Tweets - this is sort of a week's worth of reports from Marymoor, comprising
a brief trip by Brian Bell on Monday, our weekly walk on Wednesday, and Brian's
Seattle Audubon Society field trip today (which I can give a partial report
for). I was also there Wednesday night for a Friends of Marymoor Park meeting.

Monday, Brian was pretty sure he had a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW at the "compost
piles" east of the Interpretive Lot. He also had WESTERN MEADOWLARK in the
East Meadow.

Wednesday, eight (8!) of us greeted the sun in the early morning, but
unfortunately the sun hid itself behind a high thin overcast almost immediately
after sunrise. The morning was COLD, mostly windless, and rather quiet at
times. The water level was back up to 4.75', meaning about 8" of water over
the trail at the NW end of the boardwalk; we had to go around. We ended up
with a pretty decent species count, but the birds were few in number. What we
did have was great looks at a few species.

Wednesday Highlights:

Green-winged Teal Nice displays by males at Rowing Club ponds
American Wigeon 4 for sure, probably 20+ more in flight
Hooded Merganser Nice pair in slough, one or two others
Cooper's Hawk Large adult SE of boardwalk
Bald Eagle Sub-adult + adult pair on lake
Hairy Woodpecker Beautiful black and WHITE (not gray) female at Rowing
Club
Brown Creeper Fabulous looks at 3-4 birds, incl. 3 in one tree
at Rowing Club
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 or 2 near east entrance at 7:00
SAVANNAH SPARROW 3 in East Meadow, 3 weeks early
Fox Sparrow Great looks at singing birds
Western Meadowlark 1 in East Meadow
Pine Siskin Just a few, but first in 7 weeks

Also, a COYOTE west of the slough near the weir. First coyote we've recorded
since October 14, 1999!

Wednesday night, after the FOMP meeting, I got to watch a BARN OWL for several
minutes as it hunted by the light of the soccer fields. (OK - that's not as
romantic as the moon, but it's the truth).

Today, for the SAS field trip, there were around 10 participants. I was only
able to stay for the first 3 hours, which meant I left just as we got to the
East Meadow. Not too many highlights while I was there, but there were 3
COMMON GOLDNEYE at the slough including one of the nicest looking males I've
ever seen. Three more males flew downslough over the course of the morning.
Also flying downslough was a BELTED KINGFISHER, only the second one we've seen
this year. The COOPER'S HAWK was in the same tree that we saw it in on
Wednesday.

And as we came out into the East Meadow, we had a single, very nicely colored
and marked VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW, our first swallow of the year. This is by far
the earliest date I've recorded VGSW at Marymoor, with previous early dates
being 6 on 11-Mar-99, and 40 on 13-Mar-97.

[To be totally honest, I have three early swallow records with uncertain
identification which were presumed to be Tree Swallow but for which
Violet-green could not be ruled out. They are all single bird sightings, on
16-Feb-96, 20-Feb-97, and 07-Mar-01. Confirmed early Tree Swallow sightings
are 1 on 28-Feb-01, 3 on 07-Mar-96, and 3 on 09-Mar-00. We have not seen Tree
Swallow yet this year]

The Indian Plum (Oso Berry) are blooming, but there is only one Salmonberry
blooming, and it has only a few feeble blooms. Over the course of the week we
heard just about all the songbirds sing. Robins and kinglets are chasing each
other around. Female RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS are much more numerous/obvious.
Spring is springing.

For the week, 54 species, with VGSW raising the year total to 75.

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