Tweets - Oh what a day! The weather was fine - cloudy in the morning,
clearing slowly, neither warm nor cold, little wind. The birds were
spectacular:

Cooper's Hawk 1 Circling over lake platform
Red-breasted Sapsucker Activity at both known nests
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1st spring sighting ever. Nice looks.
Western Wood-Pewee Heard 1, saw 1
WESTERN KINGBIRD Seen on pilings at NE corner of lake
Warbling Vireo Maybe 4, singing
Or.-crowned Warbler Maybe 3
Yellow Warbler Heard at least 3 or 4, didn't see any
Yellow-rumped Warbler Audubon's and Myrtle's in pretty good numbers
Common Yellowthroat 1st female of the year, w/nest material
Wilson's Warbler Males singing ALL OVER
Western Tanager 1 male, 2 females. Calls, no songs.
Dark-eyed Junco Adults feeding a fledgling near mansion
Black-headed Grosbeak Back in numbers
LAZULI BUNTING Male at east end of snag row
Bullock's Oriole 1-2 gorgeous males
Purple Finch 1 heard singing in deep woods

We had two brief sightings of GREEN HERON, but more intriguing is that it
appeared they may be building a nest very close to the one that they built
and abandoned last year. The spot is visible from the southernmost dog swim
area, just north of the Rowing Club dock.

BALD EAGLES were notably active, with many sightings of multiple adults and
subadults.

Some of the RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD males were acting extremely aggressively
towards other species.

We first saw the OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER at Dog Central, and got very good
looks. Later, Ollie and I went over to the Rowing Club, and had an OSFL in
the trees behind the dock. It then flew to the other side of the slough and
called, but it never sang. This is our first spring sighting ever for OSFL,
and only our 2nd sure sighting ever (plus 3 more maybes).

We distantly heard a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE in the deep woods, but it was
distant and not calling too often. I was therefore very happy to SEE one
next to the OSFL at the Rowing Club dock.

I went over to the 187th Ave access to Lake Sammamish off East Lake Samm
Parkway (right at the Redmond-Sammamish line) to see if I could spot any
Purple Martins at the next boxes (no luck there - the holes seem to be of
interest to Tree Swallows and a starling...) The surprise was a WESTERN
KINGBIRD flycatching from the old pilings.

Not only were BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK back, and back in numbers with several
gorgeous singing males seen, but near the start of the boardwalk we had a
pair and the female was breaking off twigs and taking them back to her nest
(not visible). Now that's a quick start - arrive, pair and build a nest,
definitely in less than 1 week.

The LAZULI BUNTING was hanging out with a huge flock (30+) of Savannah
Sparrows and several House Finches at the east end of the snag row. They
seemed to be interested in dandelion seeds. We got great looks at the
bunting on the split-rail fence and in the trees.

Several of these sightings represented the earliest we've ever seen the
species in the spring:
Western Wood-Pewee - previous first sighting May 9, 2001
Lazuli Bunting - previous first sighting May 17, 2001
Bullock's Oriole - previous first sighting May 9, 2001

This adds to Warbling Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, and Wilson's Warbler as
species seen earliest ever in 2004.

For the day, 64 species. For the year, adding the Olive-sided Flycatcher,
Western Wood-Pewee, Western Kingbird, Western Tanager, Yellow Warbler,
Black-headed Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, and Bullock's Oriole, we're now at
116 species.

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