Subject: Marymoor Park Report (Redmond, King Co., WA) 10/29/2003
Date: Oct 31 14:40:57 2003
From: Michael Hobbs - hummer at isomedia.com


Tweets - sorry again for sending in late reports. Wednesday was a far
more beautiful day than the weather report Tuesday afternoon on KUOW would
have led me to believe. It was cloudy at first, and a touch cold, but
there was no fog and during the course of the morning the clouds dispersed
until it was actually sunny.

The birds didn't disappoint either:

Horned Grebe 1 swimming down slough near lake
Green Heron 1 (later 2) near weir - outstanding views
OSPREY 1 perched and calling near lake
Accipiter sp. 3+ sightings, prob. COHA and SSHA
R.breasted Sapsucker 1 NE of mansion
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Shrike 1 SE of boardwalk
Brown Creeper 1 near mansion
Purple Finch A few eating ash seeds

The weir area continues to be the place to see GREEN HERON this fall. One
was at the near end of the weir again this week (exact same spot as last
week), allowing looks at individual feathers. At the end of our walk, we
headed back towards the weir briefly and found 2 GRHE in the mowed slough
area.

The OSPREY was perched along the slough about 100 yards north of the lake.
This is by far the latest we've seen Osprey at Marymoor (previously only 2
October sightings, 10/10/01 and 10/11/00). We had not seen one this year
since September 10th, I believe.

We saw one HAIRY WOODPECKER male across the slough from Dog Central, and
then found a female working the westernmost snag cottonwood (right next to
the Pea Patch port-a-potties). She was only about 4 feet off the ground,
and allowed us to get within about 15 feet for an exquisite view. She was
totally unafraid of us, and we eventually just left her there. She was
notably contrasty, pure black and quite bright white, so maybe an eastern
or northern bird.

The NORTHERN SHRIKE was at the extreme top of one of the tallest
cottonwoods at Marymoor, seen looking southeast from the bend in the
boardwalk. I feel this was an extremely unusual location for a shrike, as
I've never seen one higher than about 10 yards above the ground. We could
not tell if it was an adult or immature.

Near the female Hairy Woodpecker, we had 4 or more LINCOLN'S SPARROWS,
including at least 1 that was very brightly marked. There was quite a
range of coloration among them, and I wonder if there are any general
gender or age coloration differences in Lincoln's Sparrows.

We had great looks at FOX SPARROWS as well, both along the slough and near
the compost piles.

All in all, a really good day, with 56 species.

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