Tweets - the rain took a hiatus long enough for our walk, not starting to
fall until I got home. The wind, however, took no break. In the early
morning it was fairly calm, but the winds just picked up more and more as
the morning went on.

Flooding was the story today. At the 2nd dog swim spot, water was clearly
flowing from the slough to the interior of the park. The water gauge read
6.2 feet at the weir. The trail starts to flood at 4.1 feet, so it was
clear we weren't going to get to the boardwalk via the slough trail. We
instead worked our way around the south edge of the Dog Meadow, but that
meadow was also extensively flooded (just not as deep). From the east side,
we were able to get to the boardwalk, which was flooded too, and almost got
to the lake platform. At the Rowing Club, we could not get anywhere near
the slough or the dock due to high water.

Birding was pretty slow, with both few birds and fairly low diversity. We
did manage a few highlights though:

American Wigeon One in the slough
Northern Shoveler One with Mallards on "SODA Lake"
GREEN HERON Atop the beaver lodge at the Rowing Club
Am. Kestrel Female this week, hunting the model airplane
field
Barn Owl Scott and Matt had 2 early, windmill and
East Meadow
Pileated Woodpecker Flew up the slough as we approached the weir
Northern Shrike Hunting in the Dog Meadow
Red-winged Blackbird Quite a few males with starlings and crows
Purple Finch Good looks at S end of Dog Meadow

This was just our 5th-ever January sighting of Green Heron. We've seen
Green Heron every week of the year except for 3 weeks in January and
February. But these winter sightings are quite uncommon and quite a treat.

For the day, 47 species (same as last week).

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