Tweets - This is a rather late summary of the Marymoor Big Morning from
last Wednesday, which went very well.

Unfortunately, many of my "regulars" were busy, either travelling or
recovering from birdathons, etc. But, wonderfully, five Tweeters heard my
plea for assistance, so we had nine people starting out in four groups.
The weather certainly cooperated, giving us sunshine all morning, though
it did start COLD and then got rather hot quite fast, leaving only a
couple of hours of optimal bird activity.

The birds seemed rather less active and less abundant than I was
expecting, and the species were rather thinly spread. It was ideal
conditions for the Big Morning concept, in that of the 69+ species seen in
aggregate, none of the four groups saw much more than 50 species. So by
hitting the best spots simultaneously, we really did manage to see much
more than if we'd gone around in a single group.

So what did we see? This time, I'll give the complete list:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant Just 1 or 2
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron On nest, seen exchanging
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall Only 1
Mallard Including a few ducklings
Bufflehead *
Common Merganser Many
Osprey Pair at nest, fishing over weir
Bald Eagle **
Cooper's Hawk Two adults, several sightings
Red-tailed Hawk Nesting atop odd snag
Virginia Rail 2 heard
American Coot Only 2 or 3
Killdeer
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Dove
Band-tailed Pigeon
VAUX'S SWIFT At least a dozen, over slough
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher One
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
HUTTON'S VIREO *** One at Rowing Club
WARBLING VIREO Only a few
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit Activity at nest(s)
BROWN CREEPER ****
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Only a few
American Robin
European Starling
AMERICAN PIPIT Charlie Wright had a few in flight
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER 3 or 4 at least
NASHVILLE WARBLER One at Rowing Club
YELLOW WARBLER Three at Rowing Club
Yellow-rumped Warbler Abundant, both races
Common Yellowthroat Still only males, I believe
WILSON'S WARBLER One at Rowing Club
WESTERN TANAGER Males seen by all groups
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow Including young
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow Only a couple
Dark-eyed Junco Including young
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK Males seen by all groups
Red-winged Blackbird
WESTERN MEADOWLARK One in East Meadow
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
PURPLE FINCH Seasonally rare
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
EVENING GROSBEAK Charlie Wright heard/saw 3 flying east
House Sparrow

There was also a MAYBE Pileated Woodpecker, and what looked to me like a
2nd summer WESTERN GULL, which combined account for the "+" on the "69+"
total shown above.

Notes:

One additional species was noted on Tuesday. A female HOODED MERGANSER
was seen spending a lot of time underneath the slough box with the WOOD
DUCK nesting in it. At one point, the merganser flew up to the box and
went inside, staying for about 30 seconds before coming back out and
returning to the water below the box. I later went over and checked on
the box to see if the Wood Duck had been usurped, but she was still there
sitting on eggs. BTW, when I approached the box, a male Wood Duck came
over and challenged me, but after calling the alarm, he retreated to the
far side of the slough and disappeared.

*BUFFLEHEAD were not observed by any group during on their routes.
However, afterwards I went over to the southeast corner of Marymoor
(accessible by special permission via the East Lake Samm. Trail) and I saw
about a dozen right at the north end of the lake just out of view of the
lake platform.

**One adult BALD EAGLE flew past us in the parking lot after most people
had left, around noon. On my bushwack into the southeast corner of the
park, I was able to observe the nest, and saw an adult eagle return to the
nest. It was apparently feeding, though I hadn't carried my scope so it
was a bit hard to see details.

***The HUTTON'S VIREO was seen in about the same location as three weeks
ago, and could be the same bird. Both times, it was working the conifers
in the parking lot of the Rowing Club. These are the only records of HUVI
at Marymoor while I've been surveying.

****The BROWN CREEPER was in the deep woods in the southeast corner, seen
while I was looking for the Bald Eagle nest. We haven't seen one on any
of our regular visits since mid-March.

Thanks to all those who came out to help!

69 species for the day, a bunch of new stuff for 2003, bringing the year
total up to 104.

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