Tweets - I monitored a bunch of the bird boxes at Marymoor today, and
while I was at it, I did a little birding.

First, I saw 5 species today that were not seen (as far as I know)
yesterday:

Northern Harrier - an adult female hunting the East Meadow. This is our
first NOHA of 2003, and is an unusually late spring sighting even from the
times when NOHA were common at Marymoor.

Spotted Sandpiper - finally. I heard one or more, and saw one near the
Rowing Club dock. New for 2003.

Warbling Vireo - the other group might have seen one yesterday, I don't
remember. I hadn't counted WAVI among yesterday's 64 species though. I
had one or two below the weir in the willows.

Steller's Jay - heard from the NW corner of the park. The jay was
probably outside the park, but I still count 'em if I can hear/see them.

Yellow Warbler - heard several well today. Still didn't see any.


Other notables:

Pied-billed Grebe - adult with 5 striped young, fairly small, a bit south
of the RC dock. These are the only PBGR young we've seen this year. I
think there is only one pair nesting along the slough this season.

Wood Duck - the wood duck box opposite (and a bit south) of the RC dock
was unoccupied. There were 4 unhatched, cold eggs. I left them for now.
As I noted yesterday, we saw 2 females with young - one with 10 near that
nest box, one with a single duckling at the RC pond.

Gadwall - female with 4 small ducklings near the windmill. This is the
only female and young GADW we've seen this spring.

Red-tailed Hawk - 2 downy young visible atop the odd-snag nest. They
appeared to be somewhere between robin and pigeon sized, though it's a bit
hard to judge scale. They were moving about the nest, and one even
stretched its wings. All off-white with dark eye and bill.

Tree Swallow - no less than 13 nest boxes are occupied. Most have 5 eggs.
One set appeared to be hatching TODAY, with two miniscule pinkies and two
or three more eggs. Another set appeared to be a bit older.

Black-capped Chickadee - observed repeatedly entering natural nest hole in
snag. Also, 5 nestboxes are being used by BCCH, 2 still in the egg stage,
one box had some nearly ready to fledge, one box had some that appeared
about half grown, and one box had young in the big mouth and nothing else
stage.

Bewick's Wren - half-grown young in one box.

Spotted Towhee - adult foraging below a yellow-gaped fledgling near the
windmill.

Other than that, I saw many of the same birds as yesterday. My species
count was not nearly as high, but I started later, finished earlier, and
was busy checking about 35 bird boxes.

Oh yeah, one box had some kind of mouse living in it. Quite cute.

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