Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park Report (Redmond, King Co., WA) 2005-04-06
Date: Apr 6 22:21:08 2005
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at verizon.net


Tweets - 10 of us enjoyed unexpectedly good weather this morning - fairly
warm, somewhat overcast, no wind, no rain. The birds were singing and
active, and we ended up with a good list, though nothing shocking. We had
some good views now and again, and were happy to see some old "friends" back
for the spring.

A pair of WOOD DUCK were perched in a tree above the wood duck box on the
slough, showing possible interest in it. Later we had two pairs looking
beautiful on the Rowing Club pond.

An OSPREY landed in a tree next to the weir, giving us point-blank looks.
It took off for dive into the slough at one point before returning to its
tree. Later, we saw both Osprey at their nest on the white cell phone tower
near SR-520.

We saw at least seven male RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS, including one doing
J-displays above our head. At the Communty Gardens, a male and a female
spent a lot of time and energy going back and forth between the two
hummingbird feeders. The female flared her tail very widely a couple of
times, showing her beautiful colors usually hidden away there. *He* seemed
to want to be near her; *she* seemed to want to be away from him. We saw
another female on her nest at the Rowing Club parking lot.

TREE SWALLOWS were incredibly numerous, and were checking out many of the
bird houses in the park, both along the slough and in the East Meadow. We
also saw one pair very interested in a real hole in an actual snag on the
west side of the slough. One of them was inside the hole for over a minute.
Tree Swallows were essentially the only swallows we saw today, though late
in the morning we did find a half-dozen VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS.

We had two sightings of ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER - both beautiful birds, one
of the more greeny-yellow variety and one more yellow (withouht so much
green). Both were quite bright and were singing. I saw the orange crown on
the first of them. :)

We saw and heard many YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, all male AUDUBON'S except for
one male MYRTLE'S in Snag Row. We also saw a half dozen COMMON
YELLOWTHROATS, all male.

SAVANNAH SPARROWS were extremely numerous in the East Meadow especially,
though we saw them in several other locations as well. Unfortunately, we
did not see either the Say's Phoebe nor the Northern Shrike that had been in
the East Meadow earlier this week.

Our most surprising bird was a white-stripe WHITE-THROATED SPARROW near the
windmill, hanging out with a few Golden-crowned Sparrows.

Yesterday, I got the sad news from Scott Berglund that he had found a dead
baby BARN OWL near the windmill. Early this morning, I was able to hear
Barn Owl calls from within the windmill. I do not know if there is another
chick. The dead baby was about 1/2 feathers and 1/2 down.

For the morning, 61 species. For the year, we're up to 94 species.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net