Tweets - it was gorgeous before First Crow this morning. The sky was
cloudless and deep, with Venus shining brighter than the gathering dawn to
the east. A low ground fog covered the meadows, so I climbed the dirt piles
at the north end of the East Meadow and watched and waited. At about 7:10,
or maybe just before, a SHORT-EARED OWL worked its way south from the road
along the ditch at the east edge of the meadow and then disappeared into the
fog.

Brian Bell was approaching, and I dreaded having to tell him that he'd
missed the owl by less than two minutes. But Brian called out to me
something I couldn't quite parse. I looked down towards him, only to come
face-to-face with a Short-eared that may have been intending to try for a
morning meal around the Compost Piles. We spotted each other when the owl
was about ten feet away. I didn't have time to flinch before the owl,
startled by my presence, jerked away to the east.

For a while, it seemed like the rest of the day would pale in comparison to
the early owl experience, but no...

There were about a dozen of us this morning, and though the birds were
mostly invisible early on, the day was fine. The early fog lifted to form a
thin overcast though which the sun fought feebly all day. The birds came in
bunches, sometimes with good looks.

Highlights:

Greater White-fronted Goose 10 with Canadas in NE fields
Cackling Goose About 8 with the White-fronts
Wood Duck Still a pair. They get sparse until
March
MERLIN One perched briefly across the
slough
Barn Owl Matt & Scott had at least 1 early
Red-breasted Sapsucker Two, including nice looks at RC
Hairy Woodpecker One in Big Cottonwood Forest
Pileated Woodpecker One across from Rowing Club dock
NORTHERN SHRIKE Nice adult in East Meadow
Orange-crowned Warbler One with bushtits and chickadees
Western Meadowlark One at the East Meadow
Evening Grosbeak Often heard overhead, no good looks

The 10 Greater White-fronted Geese is by far the most we've ever had at
Marymoor at one time. The previous high was 5 on October 16, 2008.

The NORTHEN SHRIKE was very active. It was first spotted on a hawthorn in
the middle of the East Meadow, but it then moved to the willows east of the
meadow, then perhaps all the way north towards the velodrome, before
returning to the cherry trees at the Compost Piles. It then flew off to the
southeast. So it might be covering the entire NE quadrant of the park.

There were a variety of gulls on the grass soccer fields at 7:30. The fog
and their jumpiness made viewing difficult. There was one particularly dark
large first-winter gull that we think might have been a Western Gull, but
distinguishing field marks were not noted.

We had no Green Heron for the first time since March. Sometimes Green
Herons will stick around sparsely through the winter, and other years they
clear out. We have seen Green Heron all but three weeks of the year over
the last 15+ years. But perhaps this winter will be one of the winters we
don't see them.

For the day, we managed 64 species!

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