Tweets - Yesterday, of us birded on a chilly, foggy morning. The fog
didn't lift at Marymoor until noon, and before that, birding was pretty
slow. Despite few birds, we did have some interesting sightings. And after
noon, the few of us that went over to the Rowing Club had a great time
birding there in the sun.

Highlights:

Ollie spotted a GREEN HERON on the west shore of the slough near the Rowing
Club dock, after we all had searched that area with little belief that we
would actually find a Greenie there. We'd spent enough time looking that we
couldn't believe Ollie had conjured one up under our noses.

We had a FOUR GOOSE day, with a couple of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE in
flight, and later at least two CACKLING GOOSE flying to the lake. Hugh
Jennings had a SNOW GOOSE on the soccer fields on his way out a bit before
10. These three species were all observed in flocks of CANADA GOOSE,
illustrating the extent to which Marymoor attracts mixed goose flocks in
winter.

It was also a good day for duck sightings:

Gadwall
Mallard
Northern Shoveler Quite a few at the lake
Green-winged Teal One female at RC pond
Canvasback 4 at lake
Ring-necked Duck 2 at RC pond
Greater Scaup 1 at lake late
Bufflehead About 20 at lake
Hooded Merganser 4 at RC pond
Common Merganser Flock of about 7 flying north

Just south of the Dog Area, a very accommodating SHARP-SHINNED HAWK perched
in a tree while we walked around it trying for good views. It stayed for
about 5 minutes, allowing everyone to see it well, then it flew off over
the slough.

The Rowing Club featured several surprises. Besides the ducks mentioned
above, we had two WILSON'S SNIPE on the far shore of the RC pond.

Down near the dock, Matt found a male WILSON'S WARBLER! This is an
incredibly late sighting - our previous latest fall sighting for WIWA was
September 13th, 2000.

Near the pond, I pished in several Black-capped Chickadees, and a handful of
kinglets (both kinds). Then, an ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD came in to investigate!
I've never pished a hummingbird before. It was also the first time we've
had Anna's at the Rowing Club, as far as I can remember.

Afterwards, I made a quick stop at the cabana at the northwest corner of the
lake, picking up the scaup, four Western Grebe, about 10 Pine Siskin, and a
cormorant.

We had our first WINTER WREN of the fall. Many of the ducks were also First
of Fall.

For the day, 58 species. The SNOW GOOSE and CANVASBACK were new for the
year, bringing the year total to 142.

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