Tweets - we finally had a morning devoid of fog! It was overcast with
occasional drizzle, but the clouds were high, it wasn't too cold, and
there was no wind. Not bad, really. Four of us went on a rather
leisurely ramble, which featured a great start, but became rather quiet
after about 9:30.

Highlights:

Canvasback Again, lone female in slough
Bald Eagle Nice adult flew downriver
Cooper's Hawk Very nice small (male?) adult in parking lot
MERLIN Flew down river
PEREGRINE FALCON Dark juvenile in Pea Patch cottonwood snags
Wilson's Snipe Seen at 3 locations
WH.-THR. SPARROW Tan stripe again with GCSPs

A five-raptor day. The PEREGRINE FALCON was first noted by the large
flock of agitated crows that gathered in the Pea Patch snags. A
RED-TAILED HAWK flew over there, then came back with a very angry falcon
in hot pursuit. At least 3 or 4 times, the Peregrine rose into the air
then stooped on the Red-tail. At least twice, the Red-tail turned
completely upside-down to fend off the smaller falcon with its talons.
The Peregrine kept up loud screeching throughout, finally abandoning
pursuit when the Red-tail crossed the slough near the weir. Quite a
sight! At the end of our walk, we noted the Peregrine sitting in the
easternmost snag in the Pea Patch row, allowing us pretty good views.

The WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was with a large flock of Golden-crowned
Sparrows (and 1 White-crowned Sparrow) along the path just N of the weir.
We got to watch it for several minutes until a dog jogger came past.
Almost undoubtedly, this individual has been wintering in and about
Marymoor, as we've had six sightings of single tan-stripe WTSPs in with
GCSPs: 11/7/02, 11/14/02, 12/12/02, 1/4/03, 2/12/03, and 2/19/03.

MARSH WREN, WINTER WREN, HOUSE FINCH, and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET were all
singing.

One of the DARK-EYED JUNCOS appeared to be a SLATE-COLORED bird.

I had a brief view of a LONG-TAILED WEASEL right in front of my car a few
minutes after 7:30.

For the day, 49 species. Nothing new for 2003, so still at 71 for the
year.

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