Tweets - The weather was definitely the worst part about today's birding.
It did rain, and it was windy, and the lighting conditions were not always
great. Many of the ordinary species were missed, including Red-winged
Blackbird, Bushtit, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and Brown-headed Cowbird.
But there was plenty else to see:

Green Heron 1-2 immatures
Gr. Wh-fronted Goose Gorgeous bird, grass soccer fields
Spotted Sandpiper 2+ seen on lily pads
Mourning Dove 1 at Pea Patch
COMMON TERN New to park list, 1 imm.
Black Swift Quite a few seen twice, distantly
Pac-slope Flycatcher 1 very buffy bird, seen from boardwalk
Warbling Vireo Somewhere between 2 and 6 were seen
Yellow Warbler Large numbers, most immatures
Orange-crowned Warbler 6+ at S end of dog area
Wilson's Warbler 2+ seen

The GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE was one of the prettiest I've ever seen,
very brightly marked, with very obvious white face and black belly marks.
It was on the grass soccer fields just north of the Interpretive Lot.

There was an obvious warbler migration swarm; numbers were hard to come up
with, for we saw the same species at several locations. Most numerous and
widespread were YELLOW WARBLER. These were mixed with WILLOW FLYCATCHER,
WARBLING VIREO, and at one location, WILSON'S WARBLER and ORANGE-CROWNED
WARBLER. There were also quite a few BEWICK'S WREN, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE,
CEDAR WAXWING, and even a couple of SWAINSON'S THRUSH and BLACK-HEADED
GROSBEAK in with these flocks.

The PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER was seen near the west end of the boardwalk -
new for the 2004 list.

We had a great look at a LONG-TAILED WEASEL near the Dog Area portapotties.

The immature COMMON TERN was seen from the lake platform looking towards
Idyllwood Park. Because of the extreme distance, it was impossible to be
100% sure of the identification (they were clearly small, white terns, but
there was still the remote possibility of Arctic or Forster's). So late
this afternoon, I went back for a better look.

I have previously received permission to bird occasionally from the cabana
at the northernmost condo complex with lake access on the west side of Lake
Sammamish, so I headed there. Immediately upon arriving, I saw a
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT (representing the earliest fall sighting of the
species). I then saw an adult BALD EAGLE land in a cottonwood (another
species not seen this morning).

I then heard a commotion, and witnessed a remarkable sight - an adult
accipiter, probably a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, hunting SPOTTED SANDPIPER. The
hawk made several passes low over the lily pads, flushing the sandpipers.
It then made several moves, seemingly directed at lily flowers. It's
possible the hawk had trouble distinguishing between the white flowers and
the white birds...

Looking to the south, I was able to see 2 white terns, but was still unable
to get a good ID. However there was also a third, smaller, darker tern. So
I went back to my car, looking for a better place to look. From the bottom
of 40th street, I was able to get an OK look, but the best was from
Idyllwood Park, where I was easily able to see the adult and immature COMMON
TERN and the immature BLACK TERN that I previously reported to Tweeters.

I'll have to ponder the question of adding the Black Tern to the Marymoor
list - I may end up going out there tomorrow to see if I can actually see it
from the lake platform. It certainly would have been *visible* from the
lake platform this afternoon, though it may not have been positively
identifiable...

Not counting the Black Tern, we had 51 species this morning. Grace and
Ollie Oliver had a BARN OWL earlier this week. I had the cormorant,
accipiter, and eagle, to bring the week count to 55. The year count was
boosted by 2 (PSFL and COTE) for a total of 131 species.

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