Tweets - The weather was less than ideal, with solid overcast, and long
stretches of light rain, but it was about as birdy as Marymoor has ever
been. It was a phenomenal day that started with shorebirds - 6 species by
the end of the day, which is unprecedented for the park. Most of them were
at the two muddy puddle-ponds in the grass-and-gravel parking lot north of
the grass soccer fields. They were not the only special birds, though.
Passerine spring migration was in full swing too.

Highlights:

Cooper's Hawk Adult near Compost Piles
Killdeer Several
LESSER YELLOWLEGS 1 with the peeps before 6:00am
SOLITARY SANDPIPER 1 with the peeps
WESTERN SANDPIPER 1 with the Least Sandpipers
LEAST SANDPIPER About 15
Wilson's Snipe 1 flyby. Getting late for snipe
Vaux's Swift Maybe 30. Rather a lot, really
Empidonax sp. Two. One might have been a Willow
Cassin's Vireo One, silent
Warbling Vireo 2, not together, silent
Pacific Wren Still one - latest spring sighting ever
TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - one near windmill
Hermit Thrush 2, not together
American Robin First fledgling of the year
American Pipit Megan and Ollie had about 28
Or.-crowned Warbler Quite a few, most silent
Y.-rumped Warbler Numbers down a tad perhaps but still lots
Bl.-thr. Gray Warbler 2 or more in maples
Wilson's Warbler Saw 2, heard several more
Western Tanager 3 males
Bl.-headed Grosbeak 1 male singing at Rowing Club
Evening Grosbeak Twice heard overhead

Amazing to get a *NEW PARK BIRD* (WESTERN SANDPIPER - park bird #218), two
birds seen only twice before (SOLITARY SANDPIPER and TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE),
a 5th-ever sighting (LESSER YELLOWLEGS), a 6th-ever sighting (LEAST
SANDPIPER), and just the 10th-ever spring sighting of BLACK-THROATED GRAY
WARBLER, all in the same day! For that matter, CASSIN'S VIREO has been seen
fewer than 20 times, and Tuesday Sharon Aagaard had a SORA, another sub-20
species.

And I was just noting that I have records from just about exactly 1000
visits to Marymoor Park now.

For the day, a whopping 77 species in 5 hours. For the week, counting my
scouting trip on Sunday, Sharon's scouting trip on Monday, and our King
County Big Day visit on Tuesday, another 11 species to get us to 88 species
for the week!

Oh, and 17 species added to the park year list, bringing the 2011 total to
124 species (Sora (5/2), Solitary Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Western
Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Mourning Dove (5/3), Cassin's Vireo, Warbling
Vireo, Purple Martin (5/1), Townsend's Solitaire, American Pipit, Nashville
Warbler (5/3), Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson's Warbler (5/3), Western
Tanager (5/3), Black-headed Grosbeak (5/2) )

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