Subject: [Tweeters] Magnuson Park (King Co) this morning - 11/20/11
Date: Nov 20 14:12:01 2011
From: Evan Houston - evanghouston at yahoo.com


Hi Tweeters,

There were some nice pockets of bird activity this morning at frosty Magnuson Park. ?Some of the highlights included:

- Redhead - a sharp male w/ scaup flock near swim platform
- Scaup - both species, mostly Greaters, near swim platform, totaling about 200 birds - I would be interested to know what type of shellfish they were feeding on - some kind of small clam
- Red-breasted Merganser - a flock of 13 well out in the water - this species seems to be fairly regular in the winter in deeper waters of Lake WA
- Common Goldeneye - at least 45 or so scattered around, no Barrow's today
- California Quail?
- Herring Gull - several on swim platform, regular in winter at Magnuson?
- Marsh Wren - 1 bird - I did not see any this past breeding season, but maybe they will try to breed here in the future with the improving habitat
- Cedar Waxwing - only a couple, but plentiful fruit and berries around
- White-throated Sparrow - my first for Magnuson feeding in an active area north of the tennis courts, video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGLg4JDS-OA
- Varied Thrush - one male w/ many American Robin feeding on the nice Madrone berry crop at Promontory Point

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA