Tweets - it was a fabulous day at Marymoor. The dawn was gorgeous, with a
sliver of a moon, Mt. Rainier to the south, and wispy (though fairly dense)
ground fog that cleared by the time we started. It was just 48 degrees at
6:00 a.m., but with the sunshine it warmed nicely. There were lots of birds
to see; not many singing, though, and we had to puzzle through quite a bit
of odd bird noises that we don't know nearly as well as their songs. Lots
of baby birds were about, some still tended by adults. Fall migration is
definitely beginning.

Highlights:

Canada Goose Flocking up - maybe 80 or more
Green Heron Several looks - lake and Rowing Club
Cooper's Hawk 2 sightings (maybe same bird)
MERLIN Flew north over Community Gardens
GREATER YELLOWLEGS Flew circles over lake platform calling
Ring-billed Gull 1 adult. Also 2 unidentified gulls earlier
Barn Owl Babies still calling from windmill predawn
Pileated Woodpecker Scott saw one fly east from boardwalk
Warbling Vireo One feeding a BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD
COMMON RAVEN One flew south down East Lake Samm Pkwy
Or.-crowned Warbler Scruffy (juvenile?) bird near 3rd dog swim beach
WESTERN TANAGER One (female or imm.), west edge of Dog Meadow

Most of the summer birds were still around, though we saw no Tree Swallows
nor Purple Martins.

Obvious baby birds included Mallard, Barn Owl, Anna's Hummingbird, American
Crow, Violet-green Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing,
Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco,
Black-headed Grosbeak, Red-winged Blackbird, and Brown-headed Cowbird,
though I'm sure we saw juveniles of other species (Canada Goose, Bushtit,
etc.) that weren't so obvious.

The GREATER YELLOWLEGS was just our 5th confirmed sighting for the park, and
the first since 2007 (though there was a probable one in 2009).

COMMON RAVENS are not common at Marymoor (18 sightings now). Most of the
reports are from Sept-Jan, with three sightings in March. This was just our
2nd sighting from the April-August window, the other one being from JULY 26,
2006.

We had 60 species for the day. The yellowlegs and raven were new for the
year - I think that puts us at 148 for 2011.

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