Gil Tabori alerted me to the fact that this message didn't get through to
everyone, so I'm resending it. (I had Rich Text Editor ON in Hotmail.)
Apologies if you're getting it twice.

From: Jim McCoy
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: bboyton at aol.com
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Bird at Marymoor Park on Friday
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 5:31 PM
I was just down at Marymoor with Michael Hobbs and friends, and had left the
group to go to work, when I found what might well be the same bird that Bill
saw on Friday.
His description is spot on, with the only additions being that the streaking
on the breast was quite heavy but not excessively dark, and there were white
tail feather edgings. It didn't stay still for very long, and was working
in the mown grass between the community garden and the soccer fields, a
couple hundred yards ESE of where Bill saw his bird. At one point it hopped
up and was on the side of a tall stump before dropping back out of sight.
I honestly don't know what to make of it. I'm almost certain it wasn't a
pipit -- the face, uniformity of the streaking, and general jizz of the bird
seemed wrong, and it might have been a bit too small. But nothing else I
can think of makes any sense either. The bill was definitely too thin to be
any sort of finch; it was clearly thinner than a siskin's bill.
I'd venture to say it's a bird I haven't seen before, with the caveat that
it might be an immature, and I might just not have any experience with it in
its immature state.
After I lost sight of it, I doubled back to alert the group to it, but we
were unable to find it, and I had to take off for work. Hopefully it turned
up for them, but I'll be back looking for it in any case.
Jim McCoy
Bellevue, WA
jfmccoy at hotmail.com
From:
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Bird at Marymoor Park on Friday
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 2:44 AM
Hello tweeters.
I initially wasn't going to report this, as I did not feel that I could make
a positive identification, but I am curious about what others might know.
Mid-morning last Friday, I was walking the grassy area west of Clise
Mansion. There were two robins working the north end of the area, and also
a third bird. Slender, brown-and white streaked, a long tail, and with dark
eye and slender dark bill, it was probing the ground. The nearby robins gave
a good size comparison, making it 6-7 inches. One of the robins drove it
off, which I thought was unusual. It flew a little further away, where I
watched it probing the soil further. There were two wing bars, I would call
them, but not well defined. I thought there was more streaking on the top of
the bird than the underside, but am not certain.
I can't say what it was, but I was wondering if anyone has seen American
pipits at Marymoor, and would that be a feasible sighting this time of year?
Bill Boyington
Shoreline, WA
bboyton at aol.com