Tweets - the first rain drops fell while Matt, Tom, and I were enjoying our
first view of a SHORT-EARED OWL just after 7:00 a.m. The weather went
downhill from there, getting progressively rainier until it was raining
pretty hard by about 10:00. It remained dark all morning, though by 11:00,
or so, the rain had quit. Sounds like a good day to skip -- MAIS NON!
While there were times when there weren't many birds to see, the species
total steadily rose, and there were some good birds along the way. The 16
people that came out were glad they did (especially if they stayed to the
end).

Highlights:

Ring-necked Duck First of fall, 1female
Lesser Scaup Ditto
Ruddy Duck Ditto again
Horned Grebe One at lake
Western Grebe Ditto
Sharp-shinned Hawk At least 1, maybe more
Cooper's Hawk At least 2, maybe more
Short-eared Owl Over East Meadow, Compost Piles, 7:07-7:20AM
Hairy Woodpecker Landed in a snag on west edge of Dog Meadow
Varied Thrush Heard by several people early
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Flocks!
Yellow-rumped Warbler Still quite large numbers around
Townsend's Warbler Female NE of mansion
Wh.-throated Sparrow In blackberries in East Meadow; unusual location
Purple Finch About 20 eating Ash seeds, Rowing Club
PINE SISKIN Flock of ~100 at Rowing Club

With the white-striped WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, we had our second consecutive
9-sparrow Wednesday. There were lots of sparrows at the Compost Piles which
was surprising because of the two COOPER'S HAWKS there too.

We had our first fall gull flock; mostly MEW GULL, but also RING-BILLED,
CALIFORNIA, GLAUCOUS-WINGED, and a pale-but-otherwise-definite WESTERN GULL.

For the day, 63 species (and we were done shortly after noon, making this a
shorter day than some).

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