Tweets - we had a huge turnout today - 16 birders total, although we never
had more than about a dozen at any one time. It was another gorgeous day,
with the sun coming up over the Cascades a bit after 7:00 and quickly
burning off the "patchy morning fog". Mt. Rainier was crisp and clear. The
birding was only so-so from a total bird count perspective. Several birds
appeared only briefly and were NOT seen by all.

Our species count was high (64 species) partly because we got First-Of-Fall
(FOF) looks at a number of species, plus we had what were probably our
Last-Of-The-Year (LOTY?) looks at several more:

American Wigeon FOF - several, flyby
Common Merganser FOF - 1 female at weir
Bald Eagle 1 adult - unusual for date
Cooper's Hawk Juvenile in Snag Row, adult near mansion
American Kestrel Beautiful male in East Meadow
Wilson's Snipe FOF - 2 flying near weir
Vaux's Swift LOTY? Maybe as many as 15
R.-breasted Sapsucker 1 over East Meadow, 1 at Mansion
Willow Flycatcher LOTY? 2-3
CASSIN'S VIREO LOTY? 1 at SW edge of Dog Meadow
Swainson's Thrush LOTY?? 1. May stick around a bit.
Or.-crowned Warbler Maybe 3+
Yellow Warbler LOTY?? 2. May stick around a bit.
Y.-rumped Warbler 25+
B.-throated Gray Wrblr 1 male at Rowing Club
Townsend's Warbler Gorgeous male at Mansion
Common Yellowthroat Still several - should hang on a while
LAPLAND LONGSPUR 4 in NE corner of Dog Meadow
Bl.-headed Grosbeak LOTY? 1 near east footbridge
Western Meadowlark FOF - 4 in East Meadow

This was only our third BALD EAGLE sighting ever for the month of September,
the others being 9/1/04 and 9/29/04. Finding a Baldie now was definitely a
surprise.

Several birders went out during the week looking for Longspurs and other
things that have been noted recently. Other birds for this week (9/17-9/20)
that I've seen or heard about were:

Gadwall
Northern Harrier
Virginia Rail
Common Nighthawk
Anna's Hummingbird
Brown Creeper
American Pipit
Vesper Sparrow

So 64 species for the day, and 72 species for the week.

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