Blech - heavy rain intersperced with slightly less heavy rain. Temps in the
low 40's. At least there wasn't much wind - the only saving grace, but
that's a biggie. Only six more weeks of winter, thank god. Over a dozen of
us trudged around Marymoor Ark this morning. There were birds to see, but
overall the species total was fairly pathetic and my hands were cold. And
you know what? It was great.

Highlights:

Wood Duck At least 5, lots of calling
Common Goldeneye At least a dozen
California Gull 8-10, which is a lot for Marymoor
Barn Owl Sharon saw it in the next box
W. SCREECH-OWL See the note below
Rufous Hummingbird Several - nice looks
Northern Shrike At least 2, calling
Fox Sparrow 20-25, some singing

The BARN OWL was *not* visible in the box shortly after 7:00, but Sharon
stopped by again at about 11:00a.m. and was able to see it. I think this
demonstrates that the adult can be in the box and not be visible. We also
had one, barely visible, roosting near the windmill again.

FOX SPARROWS were all over the slough trail through the dog area. They were
mixed in with SONG SPARROWS, SPOTTED TOWHEES, and GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS,
but easily outnumbered those species combined.

Ollie spotted a NORTHERN SHRIKE in the Dog Meadow, and we spent quite a
while making sure it wasn't a Loggerhead. At one point it was buzzed by a
female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. Later, there were 2 shrike at the north end of
the East Meadow. They flew off together to the northwest, and at least one
of them was calling in flight.

Swallows were almost a no-show. Finally, Ollie spotted one west of the
mansion. It turned out VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS were flying very very low over
the slough there. We found more at the Rowing Club pond, again flying very
low over the water. We had no other swallows today.

The best moment of the morning, by far, though was just after we found those
first swallows. Matt turned to me and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we
found a WESTERN SCREECH-OWL in one of these trees? Oh My God - there's one
right there." There really was barely time between the first and second
sentences for me to actually write them as two sentences. The owl was in
just about the very first spot Matt looked, about 8 feet up a young pine.
We had close but obscured views of the bird, which was a lifer for one or
two people and was a first visible WESO for several more.

Besides the female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD buzzing the first shrike, we had two
males south of the East Meadow, which posed for us nicely. Still no
Salmonberry blooming, though we did find some Red-flowering Current in
bloom.

We ended up the day with only 49 species, but my wife says the Screech-Owl
ought to count for two. If you don't like that math, we also had a
LONG-TAILED WEASEL with a mouth full of something furry, which ought to
count for something...

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