Tweets - what can I say about today? A gorgeous day, with just a bit of
low fog that cleared early. A big group of birders. Nothing much of
interest, really, for the first couple of hours (although we did have fun
trying to get looks at a couple of Wilson's Snipe below the weir, and
there was the corpse of a snipe at the first dog swim area - plucked and
picked at, but I suspect the predator got scared off by the morning's
first dog).

Once we came around to the East Meadow, though, things picked up
amazingly. Highlights:

TRUMPETER SWAN (ID not certain) 1 flying over East Meadow
Northern Shoveler 2 females in slough
American Wigeon Pair in upper slough
Canvasback 3 on lake (seen from ELSP late)
Cooper's Hawk Immature landed on lake platform railing
Virginia Rail Heard at lake platform
ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD (ID not 100% certain) near windmill
Pileated Woodpecker Near windmill
Northern Shrike Immature hunting East Meadow
Bushtit Many large flocks
Brown Creeper At least 3 at 2 different locations
Townsend's Warbler Female NE of mansion
Savannah Sparrow 1 at compost piles
Fox Sparrow Some fantastic looks early
Western Meadowlark 5 in East Meadow
Pine Siskin 2-3 large flocks, maybe 80 birds total

As we came up to the middle part of the East Meadow, an immature NORTHERN
SHRIKE flew up to the lone, large Scot's Broom. Over the next half-hour
or so, we watched it move from exposed perch to exposed perch around the
north end of the East Meadow. It did not appear to have much of an idea
of how to hunt. As we first watched the shrike, the SWAN flew NW across
the meadow, almost right over the shrike. Our look was not such that we
could be sure of ID (mostly due to our inexperience with IDing flying
swans). Just then, the shrike flew to the north end of the meadow,
flushing some of the WESTERN MEADOWLARKS.

The compost piles yielded 7 species of sparrow - FOX, SONG, LINCOLN'S,
WHITE-CROWNED, GOLDEN-CROWNED, SAVANNAH, plus SPOTTED TOWHEE. Juncos were
just across the parking lot in the snag row, though there was no sign of
last week's American Tree Sparrow (last reported Friday).

The NE portion of the mansion area yielded a great mixed flock with both
chickadees, nuthatch, creeper, bushtit, and the female Townsend's Warbler.
Quite nice.

When we headed over towards the windmill, we were faced with about a
simultaneous appearance of a female PILEATED WOODPECKER, first on a fir,
then moving down to one of the apple trees. Moments before, Brian Bell
spotted a HUMMINGBIRD in the same tree. This is our first sighting ever
of a hummingbird that is probably NOT a rufous. His view was very
consistant with ANNA'S, but it flew off before it could be confirmed.
However, that is what it almost certainly was - new for the park list,
though with a small asterisk.

There were many nice views of birds all day, and people enjoyed things as
simple but as awesome as a flock of CANADA GEESE flying low and fast down
the slough as we stood on the Rowing Club dock and boat launch.

It was a really great day.

For the day, 59 species. I've temporarily lost track of the year count,
but it's getting up near 130. The non-Rufous, presumably Anna's, adds to
the park list.

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