Tweets - we had fog today, and for a long while, that was about all we had.
This was the sort of day that might have benefitted from going around the
loop again after the fog had cleared, but we didn't do that. The water
levels are down, but the slough trail would still need at least very tall
boots to proceed. We backtracked and went around again.

There were a few highlights:

We had lots of CANADA GOOSE, CACKLING GOOSE, and probably the same three
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE as we had last week. The white-cheeked geese
left us rather perplexed as there seemed to be very wide variation among all
the birds; they didn't sort easily into categories. There were birds that
were easy to classify and a muddle in the middle. Needs more study.

We bumped into one or more adult COOPER'S HAWKS several times, including one
that gave us great point-blank looks south of the East Meadow. It seemed to
like hanging out next to the trail at eye level...

Matt had a Barn/Short-eared Owl over the East Meadow early, but he had to
leave the identification as FOG OWL.

Matt also picked a 1st-winter WHITE-THROATED SPARROW out of a bunch of
Golden-crowned Sparrows at the 2nd Dog Swim Area. Close by, and easy to
see, was a single male PURPLE FINCH.

A BROWN CREEPER almost mistook Sharon for a tree trunk, but it veered at the
last moment and went up the cottonwood next to her instead. Great views for
us.

An adult NORTHERN SHRIKE popped up north of grass fields 7-8-9, and a MERLIN
tried to pick off a Golden-crowned Kinglet above our heads next to the
mansion.

The AMERICAN COOTS in the slough were joking amongst themselves about how
silly humans look while walking around. How could anything be that
strange-looking and dorky?

For the day, including a few species I found on a late look over the lake,
55 species.

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