Tweets - cold, blowy, and sometimes rainy, the weather didn't give us much
hope for birds. Adding in the incessant noise of leaf blowers from all
quarters, along with the swish-swish sound from people's rain pants, and
more dog/dog owner noises than usual, birding by ear was really tough.

But early on, Matt heard a chip note and immediately called it right. The
chip note sounded a bit like White-throated Sparrow only a bit sweeter,
perhaps. We were about 100 yards north (downstream) from the weir, and the
calls were coming from the edge of the blackberries. Matt pulled out his
iPod, and after an EXTENSIVE effort, we got some quick views of a SWAMP
SPARROW. Based on the chip notes, there might have been two birds present.

We had a LONG quiet spell after that, without too much to be seen. The
Rowing Club, though, also proved delightful.

Highlights:

Wood Duck Pair in slough
Northern Shoveler 1 female at Rowing Club. First of Fall.
Green Heron Still on the west edge of the RC pond
Merlin Flew by while we were looking at the SWSP
Wilson's Snipe Amazing look at RC pond
Hairy Woodpecker Along east edge of East Meadow
Northern Shrike Juvenile again in East Meadow
SWAMP SPARROW As noted above

For the day, we managed 54 species.

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