Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park Report (Redmond, King Co., WA) 2011-08-25
Date: Aug 25 14:47:32 2011
From: mattxyz at earthlink.net - mattxyz at earthlink.net


Hi Tweeters -
I filled in for Michael & Brian today on the weekly Marymoor walk. 16
of us enjoyed a sunny day of actual summer birding. I was out early
looking for owls and was not disappointed with multiple sightings of
at least 2 Barn Owls over the east meadow. The changing seasons meant
dawn was not greeted with a chorus of fitz-bews from Willow
Flycatchers this week -- they were still present in lower numbers,
but remained mostly silent all day. We ran into several nice flocks
of migrants throughout the day - spaced well enough apart to keep
things pretty interesting all along the 5+ hours.

Highlights:
Green Heron - great looks at 3 immatures, perched high in a tree.
Pied-billed Grebe - back last week, we saw 3 this week as well.
Northern Harrier - distant looks at one, interacting with an adult
Cooper's Hawk near the sparrow piles
Purple Martin - still 2 bills poking out of one of the gourds at the
lake-viewing platform, with 2-3 more perched on tree branches not far
away
Pileated Woodpecker - heard only , but seemingly at home in their
trees across W.Lake Samm from the park.
Orange-crowned Warbler - 2 or 3
Yellow Warbler - 2 or 3
Black-throated Gray Warblers - 3-4
Warbling Vireos - maybe 6 total - definitely more than we've recently
had so another sign of movement
Black-headed Grosbeaks - a group of 6 mostly juvies, working the
trees after the boardwalk together
Steller's Jay - starting to eat the hazel nuts- a sign that they've
moved from the silent season at Marymoor to a stretch when we'll be
seeing them easily for a bit.
Our only swallows besides Purple Martins were Barn Swallows. They
were joined briefly by 2 Vaux's Swifts
Red-tailed Hawk -not seen during the walk at all, so I had to double
back to pick one up on the light standards after we finished
On the mammal front, 3 River Otters were working the slough.

For the morning, we ended up with 56 species

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA