Tweets - Wednesday was snowy, snowing, and beautiful. There were nearly 2
inches of snow when we arrived, and it snowed quite a bit while we were
there.

There was absolutely no wind, making for a magical scene of big snowflakes
falling on the still water in the slough above the weir, and snowflake
reflections appearing to be "falling up" from the water.

The birds were at times abundant and at times scarce, distributions were a
bit unusual because of the weather, I think. We ended up seeing just about
everything we could have expected, and a few unexpected ones too:

Common Loon Well out on lake
GREEN HERON Flyby at lake platform - great view
Northern Pintail 3 flyby flocks
Cooper's Hawk Small juv. hunting AMRO, plus an adult
MERLIN Flying across dog meadow
Brown Creeper Twice
Townsend's Warbler Male NE of mansion
Wh-throated Sparrow In Pea Patch with GCSP, WCSP
Western Meadowlark 1-2 at East Meadow, compost piles
Purple Finch 3 females at Rowing Club

It was a good day for ducks, with 11 species - NORTHERN SHOVELER,
BUFFLEHEAD, HOODED MERGANSER, MALLARD, RING-NECKED DUCK, GREEN-WINGED TEAL,
GADWALL, COMMON MERGANSER, COMMON GOLDENEYE, GREATER SCAUP, and NORTHERN
PINTAIL. There were also around 20 "Cackling" subspecies in with a flock of
around 70 CANADA GOOSE.

When we were at the lake platform, the AMERICAN COOTS made a break away from
the west shore of the slough. Searching for a cause, we spied 2 RIVER
OTTERS at the edge of the water, apparently unsuccessful in their hunting.

For the day, 55 species.

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