Scott Hoskin, Lann Kittleson, Andrew Thurber and myself had our Big Day
for Seattle Audubon Birdathon on Saturday, May 20th. Our last species
of the day was our biggest surprise: a Common Poorwill at Montlake Fill
at 12:30am Sunday morning. It is my understanding that there are only a
handful of sightings for King County.

It was resting on the stretch of gravel trail due east of the main pond.
It's reddish/orange eyeshine is what attracted us to the bird. The
short, squat appearance of the bird immediately gave me the impression
of Common Poorwill. We were able to look at the bird with binoculars as
it was illuminated by two dim flashlights from 10-15 ft. This ID was
supported personally with prolonged views of the darkly demarcated
tertials and buffy tips to the tail feathers. White wing bars were not
visible. It did not sing. It flushed after several minutes and did not
return to the immediate area in the next fifteen minutes so we took off
(hey, we had been up for nearly 24 hours).

Hope someone else sees or hears this bird.

Cheers,
Adam Sedgley