Tweets - What a difference a week makes! 10 of us birded in today's
absolutely gorgeous weather. It was sunny, moderately warm, windless, and
beautiful today. Our species count wasn't ultra-high (though considerably
higher than last week!), but there were plenty of birds to see today, and
quite a few "good" ones. It was great to be out there.

Highlights:

Western Grebe 1 on lake
American Wigeon Flyby flock + 4 at RC
Northern Pintail 1 male with flyby flock of AMWI
Common Merganser 4 males on lake (very pretty)
Wilson's Snipe 3 at RC
Western Gull Same mostly-WEGU we've been seeing?
MERLIN Flyby at lake platform, later at RC
PEREGRINE FALCON Speed attack on ROPI just N of Snag Row
Anna's Hummingbird Visiting feeder on office N of mansion
Red-breasted Sapsucker Nice look NE of mansion
Northern Shrike Adult south of velodrome parking lot
Brown Creeper At least 3 in the mansion area
White-throated Sparrow Tan-stripe, with GCSP, near where we park
"Slate-colored" Junco 1 with Oregon-types, near where we park
Western Meadowlark 4 in East Meadow

We had great opportunites to see falcons in flight today. First was the
MERLIN flying quickly to the NE over the lake platform. Then, as we walked
along the north edge of Snag Row, a PEREGRINE streaked past us, giving us a
great look at a high speed, low angle attack. It was flying perhaps 3 feet
off the ground heading due east along the north edge of the newly-replanted
grass fields. At the east end of the field, it went after a flock of Rock
Pigeons that took to flight at the last moment. Unfortunately, the falcon
missed. The Peregrine then flew off over the light poles to the northeast.
Finally, we found probably the same Merlin as before perched across the
street from the Rowing Club. After we watched it for a minute or two, it
flew quickly directly over our heads (man, can they get going fast in a
hurry) and heading off to the northeast.

This was the first time any of us had seen a hummingbird at the feeder I
installed at the small office (in the tiny house) north of the mansion. I
had, however, heard reports from Bobbi Wallace, whose office window looks
out at the feeder, that it was being used.

The weather was so beautiful that we would have been happy seeing no birds
today, but we managed 52 species for the day.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net