Tweets - Water - Everywhere. That's the news from Marymoor. The water
level at the gauge was at 6.27 feet. That's the second-highest reading I've
ever had there, beaten only by an estimated 7.25 feet on 1/2/1997, and
beating out the 5.93 feet of 12/19/2001. The water level was only 5.10 feet
last Wednesday, so it's up more than a foot since then.

Last week we were unable to get to the boardwalk on the slough trail and had
to go around. This week, we would have been upper-thigh depth on the slough
route. Needless to say, we didn't take it. In fact, we first hit high
water at the first footbridge, opposite the rowing club dock. The Parks
people closed that bridge immediately after we crossed it. We were barely
able to get south of the dog area on the slough trail before beginning to
wade, and we didn't get very far along it before having to turn back. The
interior of the dog area wasn't much drier. There was about 10" of water
over a long section of the trail around the southeast edge of the dog area,
and that was only if you could manage to stay atop the hog-fuel trail; if
you slipped off the edge, watch out.

The trail south from the East Meadow was covered by several inches starting
just after the footbridge, and while there were some dry stretches, by the
time we entered the forested section, the water started getting deep. We
did get to the boardwalk OK, but it was all we could do to get to the lake
platform, even with 15" boots. The last 20 yards before the platform were
deep enough to require scooting along on top of the raised edge boards while
holding onto the railing. In fact, I was the only one to get to the lake
platform with both feet completely dry.

At the Rowing Club, Matt and I were unable to get to the dock. We did flush
the Mallards and Coots away from the boathouse, though, where the water was
almost up to the floor level.

Warren and Larry, however, took a different tack. They just waded through
in shoes - getting soaking wet. Larry said he couldn't feel his toes. It's
definitely one approach.

Weatherwise, it wasn't that cold. The wind was pretty bad early on, and
late in the morning too, but blesssedly it faded for most of the time we
were there. The rain followed a similar pattern. In the middle of the
morning, though, it was almost sunny with blue sky showing, and little wind.
Excellent.


For birds, it was pretty quiet. I'll just mention a few things.

We had great looks at three COMMON GOLDENEYE near the windmill.

There were hundreds of MEW GULLS, some eating earthworms on the fields, more
in the ponds in the Dog Meadow, and constantly a swirl of them overhead.

A RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER was on the same tree where we've seen it several
times recently, just east of the restroom east of the mansion.

Two BROWN-CREEPERS were with Red-breasted Nuthatches, Chestnut-backed
Chickadees, and Golden-crowned Kinglets northeast of the mansion.

One nice SLATE-COLORED JUNCO was with Oregon-types in the dog meadow.

For the day, 47 species. For the year, we're up to 65.

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