Tweets - here's my regular Marymoor report - I'm sure you've all seen my
postings about the American Tree Sparrow, but there were other highlights
yesterday and today.

First highlight was the weather, with both Wednesday and Thursday being
beautiful, frosty mornings. Yesterday was particularly nice, though cold.
The wind didn't pick up until around 10:00 (when a light breeze came on).
The air was clear. There were low, swirling vapors over the slough, and
columns of vapor which rose vertically to a height of 10 or more feet,
twisting slowly. The sun was glorious.

Five of us enjoyed some good birds too:

Greater Wh.-fronted Goose Three were with CAGO at east ballfields
Northern Harrier Female extensively hunting East Meadow
Sharp-shinned Hawk Many accipiter sightings, incl. 2 sure SSHAs
Wilson's Snipe Good looks at 4 south of the weir early
R-breasted Sapsucker In a linden tree NE of the mansion
Northern Shrike Adult in snag row Thursday
HORNED LARK Houston Flores had several at compost piles
late Wed.
Cedar Waxwing Still a few around, but numbers dropping
Townsend's Warbler Stunning male at Rowing Club parking lot
Savannah Sparrow 1 in East Meadow Thursday

The Rowing Club pond was full of ducks yesterday, with several MALLARD, 3
female NORTHERN SHOVELER, a half-dozen GREEN-WINGED TEAL, two male
RING-NECKED DUCK, a few BUFFLEHEAD, and a HOODED MERGANSER. The pond
isn't that big, so 20+ ducks is pretty good. We had GADWALL on the slough
as well.

We had a perfect, low flyby of an adult BALD EAGLE yesterday - a low
cruise just in front of us, the bird heading south. Great light, great
sight. An immature BAEA was seen today over the model airplane park

We got great looks at an adult SHARP-SHINNED HAWK hunting BUSHTITS just
north of the windmill. We got to watch the hawk jump around in the trees
very actively for about 5 minutes before it flew off to the north. That
was around noon - at about 8:00, we'd seen a juvie Sharpie flying on the
east side of the slough opposite the weir. We had several other Accipiter
sightings, a couple of which were probably Cooper's Hawk based on
behavior, but where we didn't get good looks.

During the regular visit Wednesday, 52 species, for the week, 55 species.
For the year, 128 species. American Tree Sparrow is the 3rd addition to
the list for 2003.

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