Hi Tweeters -
I'll submit a formal report to Jim D , but I wanted to share my
experience this morning at Marymoor Park [Redmond, King County].

As with many people, I'm always tantalized and amazed by the night
flights [and id's] that Jim Danzenbaker reports from Battle Ground.
Didn't seem like something a mere mortal could learn to do. But with
this 'citizen science' event coming on a thursday morning, when I
already almost always am out before dawn looking for owls at
Marymoor, I thought it would be fun to give it a shot.

Here's what I found:
The official period was to be from 5:30 - 6:00 am , but I started
early and ended late to try to get a full cycle of movement. My
location was out on the edge of the east meadow [google maps says:
47.6578,-122.110199 are the coordinates]

5:00 - 5:30 - still clear out to begin with, but with clouds & fog moving in.
4 Swainson's Thrush calls heard over the 30 minutes
I was distracted a bit by 3 Barn Owl flybys, but otherwise was very
happy to hear those 4 calls.

5:30 -6:00 - fog rolled in, so birding by ear was ideal.
It started slow, then the Swainson's Thrush calls really began to roll in:
44 calls heard - wow! I did not expect that --
Also heard in the half hour were more of the normal Marymoor early
birds: Killdeer, Bald Eagle, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, American
Robin & White-crowned Sparrow.

6:00 - 6:20 - Fog thinning a little, still thick though
63 Swainson's Thrush flight calls heard!!


6:20 - 6:25:
At 6:20, there was an abrubt switch in the Swainson's Calls -- I
don't know this for certain, but the switch from the flight call to
the more traditional 'whit' call seemed to me to indicate I was
starting to hear Swainson's Thrush who had landed for the morning and
were getting settled in the bushes.
Over these 5 minutes , I heard 98 Swainson's Thrush calls, with
approximately 90% of them the 'whit' call rather than the earlier
call.

At 6:25, the crows broke through the fog to take over, so I called it
an outing.

Overall, I heard over 200 Swainson's calls, over 100 of them the
flight call variety. Wow. I wonder how many individual birds it was?

Scott Ramos & I have heard these SWTH calls for several weeks in the
morning as we wait for Barn Owls, but we just didn't connect it with
the possibility of us hearing migrant night flight calls -- we were a
bit confused why we heard them out over the east meadow, not a spot
we find Swainson's by day. But only with this prompting to
participate did I connect the dots and figure out what we were
hearing.

Thanks Jim, and I'll submit the formal report soon.

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA