Tweets - before and after a touch of dawn fog, we had an absolutely gorgeous
day at Marymoor today. It was chilly but windless, and when the sun shone,
it was very pleasant. Not too terribly birdy, but there were some good, if
brief, sightings.

Upon arriving home this evening, I was greeted by an email from Tom Sanders,
with links to photos. At about 1:00 p.m., he had a stunning male MOUNTAIN
BLUEBIRD in the East Meadow. We've never had a fall bluebird sighting
before, and I cannot find any reference to a November western Washington
Mountain Bluebird sighting ever. Does anyone have one? (I found records
from every other month, but with very few October sightings and no
November). I'll post some of Tom's photos to the blog later tonight.

There was one other sighting that I'll mention here. I'm almost positive of
ID, but because the sighting was brief and of birds in flight only, I'm
refraining from adding this species to the Marymoor list right now. As some
of us were walking the north edge of the East Meadow, I heard waxwing-like
calls from a flock of fast-flying birds - only the call was a kind of
churring call. I called out "waxwing", but my sense was that they seemed
large and grayer. I also noted some white spots on the upper wing in
flight. It penetrated my conciousness that these might (or some of these
might) be BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS. I tried, as they flew away, to get a
confirming look at undertail coverts. They *seemed* dark, but the birds
were past so quickly, I cannot be 100% positive. They were heading west,
and we were unable to locate any waxwings subsequently. I'm so, so, so
close to being sure that's what they were. But...

Other highlights:

Cackling Goose Flocks totalling at least 500
Northern Pintail A small flock flew down slough
Northern Harrier Adult male, flying very high, heading south
Cooper's Hawk Gorgeous adult at Compost Piles
Pileated Woodpecker Two sightings on far side of slough
Winter Wren Like last week, singing east of weir
Purple Finch Again in tiny Ash at 2nd dog beach
Evening Grosbeak One flew circles around Compost Piles calling

For the day, 53 species.

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