Tweeters,
At 8:00 am this morning 4 of us with Rainier Audubon started out at Lake Sammamish State Park under partly sunny skies. The swimming beaches turned up singing Purple Finches and very large raft of Western Grebes. A beautiful breeding plumage Common Loon was seen just off shore. Two absolutely gorgeous male Rufous Hummingbirds courted a female nearby and an Orange-crowned Warbler was also singing. Near the foot bridge across the creek three Myrtle's Yellow-rumped Warblers were seen near a Red-breasted Sapsucker nest snag. We then watched the Red-Breasted Sapsucker excavating a hole on the same snag. On the way back two Fox Sparrows were heard and then seen. A lady walking her dog repported seeing a Cougar nearby at 8 am a day or two ago. (I will not mention the exact spot for fear of starting hysteria).
Moving on to the meadow with the Herony view we observed almost all of the nests being occupied by adults. The Savannah Sparrows have returned and are singing as well. After a nice break at the bench for a sit and a snack we headed over to the Microsoft buildings off of 220th and Sammamish Road. Here we had brief but frequent views of several striking Virginia Rails.
We then moved on to the Hans Jensen Youth Camp. This "annex" to the state park has fabulous habitat with old growth big leaf maples mixed with cedar, fir, and cottonwood trees. There was a report last week of a Barred Owl though our attempts went unanswered. It finally began to rain so we hurried across the street to park at the boat launch before calling it quits. The boat launched offered up singing Golden-crowned Sparrows, a single Horned Grebe, Common Goldeneye, and three Greater Scaup. Cue breezy conditions with hail and rain so we decided to call it a day and go for Thai food. Mmmm. Warm food.
55 species for the day by noon, though I know that we could have added a few more along the meadow trail had we not been stopped by the weather.
Species seen for the day listed below:
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle- 1 immature/1 adult
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Glaucous-winged Gull
Band-tailed Pigeon
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Stellar's Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Brown Creeper
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Varied Thrush
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Both Audubon's and Myrtle's)
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Purple Finch
House FInch
Pine Siskin
American Gold Finch

Amy Schillinger
Renton, WA
schillingera at hotmail.com

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