Hi Tweets,

I was joined today by eight birders from 8 am to noon on a monthly walk at Lake Sammamish State Park for Eastside and Seattle Audubon Societies. It was a perfect summer day in late September with sunny, partly cloudy skies, a nice breeze, lots of shady spots to bird from, with temps ranging from 61 to 71 degrees. The few mixed flocks we saw didn't have warblers (other than Yellow-Rumped), vireos or flycatchers, no out of the ordinary birds were seen, and it was actually a very quiet morning, but overall a pleasant one. Some of the highlights we enjoyed were: 3 separate sightings of RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER; 5 NORTHERN SHOVELERS hanging out with the gulls and Mallards at Sunset Beach; 1 COMMON LOON; 3 Grebe species: 5 HORNED, 1 WESTERN, and 2 PIED-BILLED; a flock of 13 BAND-TAILED PIGEON flew overhead; just 2 VAUX'S SWIFT in amongst 30 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS feeding over one of the meadows (later, there were another 30 VGSW feeding over the lake with about 30 BARN SWALLOWS); heard a PILEATED WOODPECKER; just 2 warbler species--16 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER AND 4 COMMON YELLOWTHROAT; a first of fall FOX SPARROW was heard chipping then seen briefly; a COOPER'S HAWK flew out of a tree just above the FOX SP; several flocks of PURPLE FINCH were seen and vocalizing their distinctive "pop" or "tick" flight call; and 3 EVENING GROSBEAK. 48 species were seen/heard, 116 for the year. The detailed list follows:
>
> Canada Goose 30
> Mallard 40
> Northern Shoveler 5
> Common Loon 1
> Pied-billed Grebe 2
> Horned Grebe 5
> Western Grebe 1
> Great Blue Heron 1
> Cooper's Hawk 1
> Red-tailed Hawk 3
> American Coot 50
> Ring-billed Gull 21
> California Gull 1
> Glaucous-winged Gull 1
> Band-tailed Pigeon 13
> Vaux's Swift 2
> Anna's Hummingbird 2
> Red-breasted Sapsucker 3
> Downy Woodpecker 4
> Northern Flicker 1
> Pileated Woodpecker 1
> Steller's Jay 3
> American Crow 20
> Violet-green Swallow 60
> Barn Swallow 30
> Black-capped Chickadee 25
> Chestnut-backed Chickadee 10
> Bushtit 10
> Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
> Brown Creeper 1
> Bewick's Wren 4
> Marsh Wren 4
> Golden-crowned Kinglet 8
> American Robin 12
> Cedar Waxwing 40
> Common Yellowthroat 4
> Yellow-rumped Warbler 16
> Spotted Towhee 2
> Savannah Sparrow 10
> Fox Sparrow 1
> Song Sparrow 10
> White-crowned Sparrow 10
> Dark-eyed Junco 3
> Red-winged Blackbird 2
> Purple Finch 12
> House Finch 20
> American Goldfinch 6
> Evening Grosbeak 3
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org)

Sharon Aagaard
Bellevue, WA
scormieraa001 at hotmail.com