The morning began with Venus and Jupiter, followed swiftly by a gathering
of 9 of us under increasing fog. It was frosty, but the lack of wind made
the temperature bearable. The fog did not clear any time soon, though,
and while it mostly stayed fairly high, it did limit our views. By 11:00
it had cleared to a gorgeous day, but by then we were almost back to the
cars.

Highlights:

American Wigeon Lone male again at RC ponds
Common Goldeneye Three flocks flying north, 15+ total
Bald Eagle Seen afterwards, at lake. Adult.
MERLIN Great flyby while we were at the weir
Ch-backed Chickadee MANY in mansion area
Lincoln's Sparrow 3-4, most SW of mansion
Western Meadowlark 4-5 in East Meadow
Purple Finch 3 females seen twice

I was focussed so closely on the MERLIN that I didn't see the flock of
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS that had been perched in the top of a cottonwood,
but apparently they *poofed* out of there like magic before the falcon
could get too close.

The mansion area was FULL of birds, with tremendous numbers of
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, the previously mentioned chickadees, plus juncos,
robins, starlings. flickers, House Finches, and three BUSHTITS. After
spending about 2 hours around the mansion on Saturday for the CBC, and
coming up with ZERO Chestnut-backed Chickadees, this was quite a switch.

A very mixed flock of CANADA GOOSE appeared to have Cacklers and
Aleutians, plus even more unidentified variety. There was one
otherwise-ordinary looking goose which appeared to have a bold, white
eye-ring, and one with many white feathers on the back of the head and
neck.

A nice enough day, but few surprises. We settled for quality views of FOX
SPARROW, PURPLE FINCH, and eleven species of duck.

Misses today included Mew Gull, and any woodpecker besides flicker.

For the day, 49 species. For 2003, now at 63.

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