Tweets - It was overcast and quiet for the five of us this morning. We
were persistant though, and ended up finding some interesting birds!

Western Grebe 1 on lake - first August sighting ever
Cooper's Hawk 1 seen as I drove out
Virginia Rail 1 seen well from boardwalk at lake
Brown Creeper 1 near mansion, 1 at Rowing Club
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 in E. Meadow - first Aug. sighting ever
White-crowned Sparrow 1 juv. at lake platform
Western Meadowlark 1 juv. in E. Meadow - first Aug. sighting

Additionally there was a bit of a migrant move, with several WARBLING
VIREOS, WESTERN TANAGERS, and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, and a couple of
YELLOW WARBLERS and WILSON'S WARBLERS.

WESTERN GREBE usually start showing up around the beginning of October,
with only 1 July sighting and 2 September sightings previously.

The LINCOLN'S SPARROW was only slightly early, as we usually see them next
week.

WESTERN MEADOWLARK have previously been sporatically from the last week in
September through the middle of May. This is our first sighting outside
of that period.

We also had good looks at some common (for Marymoor) birds:

An adult PIED-BILLED GREBE with a rather large fish and two stripe-headed
youngsters loudly requesting some.

GREEN HERON - three sightings - at the weir, at the #10 slough trail, and
from the lake platform

Several nice OSPREY flybys.

Still a few VAUX'S SWIFT and at least 2 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS hiding among
the hundreds of BARN SWALLOWS.

CEDAR WAXWINGS in abundance, including at least 2 small groups of perched
juveniles (siblings?) sitting motionless.

A few PURPLE FINCHES were about as well, though their numbers were dwarfed
by the 60+ House Finches.

No RED-TAILED HAWK today, nor SWAINSON'S THRUSH (though there were some
possible "whit" calls), nor BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, nor BLACK-THROATED GRAY
WARBLER (statistically fairly common in week 35). We also dipped on the
BARN OWL, though Ryan saw it yesterday.

For the day, 51 species, for the year, STILL 122.

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