Tweets - I think there were something like 16 of us enjoying good weather under the fog today. We even got a few minutes of blue skies showing through the clouds, but no actual sunshine. Water levels remain high, and tall rubber boots are still necessary to walk the whole loop.

When I arrived a little after 6:30, there was a GREAT HORNED OWL hooting east of the East Meadow. Then, right around 8:00, maybe 1200 CACKLING GEESE, a couple of hundred CANADA GEESE, and 3 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE landed on the grass soccer fields and remained all morning. It's probably the largest number of geese we've had land in the park ever. Some other days in 2010 may have rivaled the total number, but at least one day I can think of had flock after flock flying *over* the park and not landing.

Other highlights:

American Wigeon A handful still enjoying the flooding
Cooper's Hawk Two calling to each other, 3 more sightings
MERLIN Ollie had one fly through
Western Gull One with other gulls on grass fields
Hairy Woodpecker Four seen (2 pairs)
Northern Shrike One around 8 a.m. north of fields 7-8-9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Suddenly abundant, 1 singing
Evening Grosbeak Matt and others had 3(?) flying over

Birds heard singing today: Virginia Rail, Great Horned Owl, Black-capped Chickadee, Bewick's Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Purple Finch, and House Finch

After the walk, I found 3 Common Merganser at the north end of the lake that we'd missed earlier. That brought the day total to 57 species.

Merlin, Western Gull, and Evening Grosbeak were new for the year, bringing the 2011 total to 78.

== Michael Hobbs
== BirdMarymoor at frontier.com
== www.marymoor.org
== www.marymoor.org/birding.htm