Tweets - a fabulous day at Marymoor today. The early ground fog wasn't a
problem, and after that burned off, the skies were clear. Not too cold, not
too windy. And very, very birdy!

We had a great mixed flock just north of the Dog Area portapotties that
included many warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and chickadees. And we had an
8 sparrow day that included 2 spizella sparrows - both CLAY-COLORED and
CHIPPING SPARROWS.

Highlights:

Sharp-shinned Hawk Juvenile - 2 sightings
MERLIN Chasing a Belted Kingfisher (or vice
versa)
Red-breasted Sapsucker Juvenile at Rowing Club
Western Wood-Pewee Notably abundant
Pac.-slope Flycatcher 1-2 at Rowing Club
Purple Martin Quite a few near the lake
Orange-crowned Warbler Maybe as many as 10
Yellow Warbler 3-4
Bl.-throated Gray Warbler 6-10, all in that first warbler flock
Common Yellowthroat Everywhere
Wilson's Warbler 5-6
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW - see below
CHIPPING SPARROW Juvenile at Rowing Club
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 - First of Fall, I believe
RED CROSSBILL 2+ NE of mansion
Evening Grosbeak 2 flew by before 7:00 a.m.

The CLAY-COLORED SPARROW was hanging around the Compost Piles and the trees
just west of the East Kiosk, generally near White-crowned Sparrows. This
was a fairly colorful bird, with warm yellow and red tones, and was a real
treat. Previous sightings of CCSP at Marymoor were 1 from 9/28 - 10/9 2005,
and 1 on 10/7/2006, so it was a surprise to have one 4-5 weeks earlier than
the previous sightings.

The CHIPPING SPARROW was a juvenile feeding along the gravel path to the
Rowing Club building.

This was just our 5th ever sighting of RED CROSSBILL, but our 2nd for this
fall. There seems to be a good cone crop on the Doug Firs NE of the
mansion, so this could be a banner year for sightings.

We had 61 species for the day, and 2 new birds for the year list: Amazingly
this was our first PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER. And the CCSP was new. We
already had Chipping Sparrow on our 2011 list, on both May 26 and June 2.

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