Subject: Marymoor Park Report (Redmond, King Co., WA) 2004/02/25
Date: Feb 26 13:38:12 2004
From: Michael Hobbs - hummer at isomedia.com


Tweets - ten of us attempted to bird Marymoor yesterday, but were thwarted
somewhat by the weather. Driving to the park at 6:45, I saw one of the most
beautiful sunrises I've ever seen there. I was afraid I'd have a traffic
accident from my rubbernecking to look east. But once we started at 7:30,
it was rather dark, breezy, and COLD. We mananged to see a few birds early,
but around 9:00, the weather changed rather abruptly. While we stood around
feeling cold, we were suddenly hit by a warm wind. It had to have been
about 10-15 degrees warmer than the ambient temp. This warm wind turned
into a rather howling gale once we moved south of the Dog Area, and for the
rest of the loop, we saw almost no birds whatsoever.

What birding highlights we did have are as follows:

A WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was seen early, as has been usual, feeding with
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS just north of the dog area parking lot.

A BROWN CREEPER was seen at the start of the boardwalk.

A WILSON'S SNIPE was flushed from the ditch just west of the Community
Gardens

Additionally, we heard AMERICAN ROBIN, SPOTTED TOWHEE, BLACK-CAPPED
CHICKADEE, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, HOUSE SPARROW, SONG SPARROW, RED-WINGED
BLACKBIRD, MARSH-WREN, and WINTER WREN singing.

Over by the East Meadow, we saw an absolutely gorgeous pair of flickers low
down in a bush, which gave us stunning views.

We had several nice looks at FOX SPARROW (all "Sooty")

Houston and Ollie had a COOPER'S HAWK at the lake platform.

We ended up botanizing out of boredom, with me attempting to identify bushes
and quiz the others. The OSO BERRY (aka INDIAN PLUM) is in bloom, and there
was one SALMONBERRY with about 3 open flowers. The HAZELNUT and RED ALDER
are almost done with their catkins. Some of the willows were in the "pussy
willow" stage of budding, a few were in full flower. Some of the non-native
flowering plums were also in bloom.

For the day, we ended up with a paltry 40 species, SO, I went back today
briefly, and found another 11 species we didn't see yesterday, without
really trying.

These included a NORTHERN SHRIKE seeming to be flycatching from the perch
post in the East Meadow. Also there were two WESTERN MEADOWLARK. In the
compost piles, I came up with a LINCOLN'S SPARROW, our first in several
weeks.

I also saw a RED-TAILED HAWK, with a mole in its talons, which flew over to
where another RTHA was sitting on a bush. There was much calling between
them. My view was obscured momentarily, so I didn't see if this was a case
of a male passing food to a female, or if it might have been simply a male
displaying his hunting prowess to a female. After a very short while, one
of the hawks flew off, while the other one sat in the bush (unfortunately
just out of sight) and ate the mole.

For the day, Wednesday, 40 species. 11 more added today, for a week total
of 51. Still at 75 for the year - no swallows yet :(

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