Tweets - It was a dark morning, but the air was warm and the drizzle was light
and intermittent, with no wind. The water level has gone down such that you
only need 6" boots, and that only just as you get to the boardwalk.

As for birds, it was fairly quiet with few little birds. We did have a few
highlights:

Green-winged Teal 9 on Rowing Club pond
Canvasback About 4 on the lake
Bald Eagle 1-2 adults and 1 subadult, harassing geese
Virginia Rail Heard from the bend in the boardwalk
SAVANNAH SPARROW 3 at north end of East Meadow
Western Meadowlark 2 north of East Meadow

There were also 3 River Otter playing in the water at the north end of the lake
(also seen last week), and a bunny near the Pea Patch.

The SAVANNAH SPARROWS were certainly a surprise. We've only had two December
sightings, both in 1997, single birds on the 4th and 24th. Our earliest
spring date is March 20, also in 1997. So this first January sighting looks to
be a very late record, not an early spring one.

Oh, and just as we reached the boardwalk, there was a strange distant noise
which Brian Bell and Jim McCoy decided was probably an AMERICAN BITTERN.

All told, 43-44 species, missing such obvious birds as Pine Siskin,
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Steller's Jay, Winter Wren, etc.

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