Subject: Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co., WA) 2004/01/21
Date: Jan 22 20:23:56 2004
From: Michael Hobbs - hummer at isomedia.com


Tweets - yesterday at Marymoor was rather a strange day. Fog was above us,
and the birds were plentiful at times, with some rarities, but we missed
seeing many common species and saw very few birds after about 10:30, despite
reasonable conditions. Ten of us started out, but the group shrank as
people snuck away to other commitments.

Highlights:

Common Loon 1 well out on lake near Idylwild Park
Hairy Woodpecker Great looks along slough trail
Northern Shrike Flew east from East Meadow
COMMON RAVEN Single bird flying south - new to park list
Cedar Waxwing A single flock of 25-30 near Dog Central
Wh-throated Sparrow White-stripe bird atop blackberries in parkinglot
Purple Finch 1 female north of the east end of the
boardwalk

Misses - Here are the things we "should" have seen, but didn't: CANADA
GOOSE, either scaup, Hooded Merganser, Steller's Jay (though several times
we *thought* we heard them), Marsh Wren (see comment for STJA), Pine
Siskin, or American Goldfinch.

A COMMON RAVEN has finally been seen at Marymoor, after only approximately
500 visits. This really illustrates the extent to which this species is
absent from the trough between Puget Sound and the Cascade Crest. There
were reports of a nesting pair at Bridle Trails (and I saw one over my house
this fall, just a quarter mile from Bridle Trails), but they really are
uncommon otherwise.

The WHITE-THROATED SPARROW popped up on the top of the blackberries at the
South Lot (dog area parking lot), just a few minutes after 8:00 a.m. while
we were looking for House Sparrows. It was amazingly copacetic, allowing
great looks for about a full minute. This was a white-stripe bird, with
quite bright yellow near the lores. A nice looking bird.

At "Dog Central", we found a flock of BUSHTITS foraging at the top of one of
the tallest cottonwoods. I am not used to seeing them that high at all.
There was also a female DOWNY WOODPECKER and a male HAIRY WOODPECKER in the
general viscinity. These birds paced us all the way to the south end of the
dog area, allowing repeated looks at all three species.

In the slough near Dog Central we saw FIVE RIVER OTTER, causing much
consternation amongst ducks and coots. There was a single otter at the
Rowing Club pond (I presume it was one of the five).

For the day, only 46 species. For the year, adding COMMON LOON, HAIRY
WOODPECKER, NORTHERN SHRIKE, COMMON RAVEN, WINTER WREN, CEDAR WAXWING, and
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, we're now up to 68 species.

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