Tweets - Weather reports, schmether reports. Despite many of us gearing up
for rain, the weather was very nice this morning until well after 11:00, and
we didn't get real rain until we were past the pond at the Rowing Club. The
rest of the morning it was fairly warm, windless, and pleasant. We noodled
our way around the park, finding what was there and looking for what wasn't
there.

A few highlights:

Hundreds of CACKLING GEESE flew into the park and landed on the grass soccer
fields between about 7:10 and 7:30, and remained at least for the whole
morning. They easily outnumbered CANADA GEESE. Most were clearly minima
subspecies. There were some geese that were intermediate between the big
Canadas and the small minimas; whether they were small CANGs or large CACGs,
I don't know. I took some photos, but I'm stumped at this point as to how
to identify the muddle in the middle.

The slough edge was active with PINE SISKINS. We watched one flock of 50+
fly around the first dog swim area, but further down there seemed to be many
more, with groups of 20-30 flying from treetop to treetop and generally
being everywhere in that strip of riparian corridor between the weir and the
south end of the dog area. 75? 100? 200? more? Hard to say. Nice to
have large numbers back after the last couple of winters.

A juvenile TRUMPETER SWAN was a surprise. We found it floating down the
slough a the 3rd dog swim beach, and it quickly drifted towards the weir. I
*so* wanted it to be Tundra, but I must confess that it wasn't. This is the
second time I've ever had a juvenile swan at Marymoor, both Trumpeters, both
in the slough above the weir. We've had adults fly over the park 14 times.
Of those, the ones that called were all Trumpeters, but most flocks were
silent or too far up/away to hear. So Trumpeter Swan is on the park list
and Tundra remains stubbornly off.

A First-Of-Fall COMMON GOLDENEYE, a female, was at the lake with a few
BUFFLEHEADS and a HOODED MERGANSER. There were 25-30 Bufflehead today, the
most we've had this fall. And we had 10+ Hoodies, 4 at the Rowing Club and
the rest at the lake. But duck diversity and numbers are still very low.

There were at least a couple of flyby AMERICAN PIPITS, including one that
called very close to our heads at the south end of the East Meadow as it
flew by.

A single TOWNSEND'S WARBLER popped out among Chestnut-backed Chickadees,
Golden-crowned Kinglets, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and Brown Creeper
northeast of the mansion.

A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, heavily laden with prey, was flushed by three
off-leash dogs near the mansion. It flew up the path right past us, at an
elevation of about three feet, then disappeared into the shrubbery. I
think it was carrying a Spotted Towhee, but it went by too suddenly to be
sure.

At the Rowing Club, a WILSON'S SNIPE gave us a close look at the near edge
of the pond before scuttling out of view behind some branches.

For the day, 54 species. For the year, 154 species.

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