Five birders from the Eastside Audubon went to L. Sammamish SP Monday morning. It was raining hard at the P&R but had stopped raining by the time we got to the park. The sun came out about 11, so it was a pleasant day that resulted in some nice birds and a total of 44 species. Highlights were a COMMON LOON in breeding plumage, two AMERICAN PIPITs that were feeding in the grass by the beach (I also saw two American Pipits at the Lake Hills Greenbelt, north of SE 16th St. this morning), four WESTERN SANDPIPERs that flew in briefly. Good looks at COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. a GREEN HERON and BALD EAGLE that flew over. And, a gorgeous RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. We kept hearing a bird that the first part of its song sounded like a Purple Finch, but it added three up & down notes at the end. After much searching we finally found the bird and watched it sing and it was a Purple Finch.

The complete list of birds follows:

LOONS
Common Loon
HERONS EGRETS AND BITTERNS
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
DUCKS GEESE AND SWANS
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
HAWKS EAGLES AND KITES
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
RAILS GALLINULES AND COOTS
American Coot
PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS
Killdeer
SANDPIPERS
Western Sandpiper
GULLS
Glaucous-winged Gull
PIGEONS AND DOVES
Band-tailed Pigeon
HUMMINGBIRDS
Rufous Hummingbird
KINGFISHERS
Belted Kingfisher
WOODPECKERS
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
SWALLOWS
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
WAGTAILS AND PIPITS
American Pipit
WRENS
Bewick's Wren
THRUSHES
American Robin
LONG-TAILED TITS
Bushtit
CHICKADEES AND TITS
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
CROWS JAYS AND MAGPIES
American Crow
STARLINGS
European Starling
SISKINS CROSSBILLS AND ALLIES
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
NEW WORLD WARBLERS
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
BUNTINGS SPARROWS SEEDEATERS AND ALL
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
TROUPIALS AND ALLIES
Red-winged Blackbird

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at earthlink dot net