Tweets - there were more birds at Marymoor today than just the Smith's
Longspur.

The day was overcast, gradually clearing. There was a bit of mist and a few
drops in the early morning. By noon, it was sunny and beautiful. And it
was fairly birdy.

Hightlights:

One of the stupid juvenile COOPER'S HAWKS was trying to go after crows near
the Pea Patch. Not the brightest move. Later on, we saw one harrassing an
adult BALD EAGLE high above the park. Also a questionable move.

Matt had a BARN OWL over the East Meadow at about 6:00 a.m.

We had probably at least 3 PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS, a bird we see only as
a migrant at Marymoor. There were also a few WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, but
surprisingly no Willow Flycatchers.

Northeast of the mansion, we were surprised to have 4 PURPLE MARTINS fly
overhead, calling. This is the first time we've ever seen martins fly over
the park; they nested at the north end of the lake in 2003, but we never saw
them from within the park. These are quite possibly birds from the Juanita
Bay nesting gourds.

Mixed flocks dominated by BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES also featured several
WARBLING VIREOS, two BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, and warblers: YELLOW (2-3),
ORANGE-CROWNED (6+), BLACK-THROATED GRAY (1), and WILSON'S (2).

We had 1-2 WESTERN TANAGERS; this is the peak week for migrating WETAs at
Marymoor historically.

We had our first of fall LINCOLN'S SPARROW in the middle of the dog meadow.

Finally, Matt had about 4 EVENING GROSBEAKS flying north over the snags
while I was trying to call the BirdBox to report the longspur. Frustrating
for me, as EVGR are not at all common at Marymoor.

55 species for the day, and that was with some surprising misses - no Willow
Flycatcher, Bushtit, Starling, or Savannah Sparrow.

Not a bad day.

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