Hi Tweets

Michael and family are out of town this week so I substituted for him at Marymoor this morning. The day started out dull and gray, overcast and threatening but nothing developed. It started to break up mid-morning and finished out really nicely.

Birding was slow at the start, although we were adding species (if not lots of individuals) steadily. We had 15 people out this morning including a number of new folks. The birding picked up later, although at the end of the summer it was pretty quiet with not much bird song. We wound up with 59 species.

Highlights included:

Green Heron - one along river and two at lake
Wilson's Warbler - one early
Barn Owl - one early
Red-winged Blackbirds - the first in about three weeks
Hairy Woodpecker - this makes two weeks in a row in the same place (just into the cottonwood forest)
Purple Finch - two females
Adult Bald Eagle - numbers are really down as they move north
Lincoln's Sparrow - at least two at the brush piles, first ones back
Black-throated Gray Warbler - one at the rowing club
Pacific-slope Flycatcher - one at the rowing club

But the bird of the day, probably the year, was seen as we started to leave for the rowing club area. Just before we turned to go out of the park we stopped to scan a large group of Killdeer. One of the first things I saw was this somewhat smaller brown sandpiper type bird. Shortish yellowlegs, shortish sharp pointed black bill, buffyish head with a "large" black eye, nicely scalloped upperparts with whitish and buffy edges, and buffy upper breast and nice clean underparts. We certainly never expected to see a juvenile BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER at Marymoor, but there one was. It stuck around for at least 45 minutes and gave us great views. One of the prettiest birds we have had in a while.

Finally, the whole group (37 Killdeer) and the Buff-breasted flushed (nothing predatory apparent) and flew off to the north. The bird was later seen in the playfields slightly to the northwest hanging out with the Killdeer.

As a famous birder has said: "It was a great day".

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia.com