Tweets - weird weather was the most notable thing this morning. It was
overcast to start, and fairly warm. Just before 8:00, we had ten seconds of
dramatic sunlight streaming down on the last of the beautiful fall foliage,
but with deep, dark clouds in the background. We had moments of sprinkles,
but the rain held off until 11:00. Between 8:00 and 10:00, we were
periodically hit by puffs of incredibly warm air, occasional puffs of cold
air, and sometimes both within seconds. The wind picked up gradually,
though it faded about when the rain started, thankfully.

A lot of the birds might have been battening down the hatches, I don't know.
Things were pretty quiet for a long time. We did have a huge set of flocks
(~500) CACKLING GEESE overhead, with some landing. And later we had an
enormous mixed flock of BUSHTIT, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, one or two
CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, and
a couple of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS and BEWICK'S WRENS. That flock, or
other(s) with identical constituents, seemed to follow us around (or we
them) for quite some time.

Highlights:

Gr. Wh.-fronted Goose 2 with Cacklers near the climbing rock
Cackling Goose ~500, including non-minima subspecies
Band-tailed Pigeon Flock of 14 - unusual for November
Barn Owl Matt & Scott had several sightings
early
Northern Shrike Prominent in East Meadow
Winter Wren Singing east of weir
Varied Thrush First of Fall - landed in large
cottonwood

Mallard was our only species of duck! (Though there were a couple of flybys
that might have been Northern Shoveler and Common Goldeneye respectively).

We had none of the recent "good" birds - Horned Lark, White-throated
Sparrow, or American Tree Sparrow - all seen in the last week.

For mammals, besides the usual Eastern Cottontail and Eastern Gray Squirrel,
we had a Raccoon asleep in a tree near Dog Central, and a dead Townsend's
Mole near the windmill.

For the day, 52 species.

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