Subject: [Tweeters] SAS King County Big Day April 28, 2012
Date: Apr 28 22:44:14 2012
From: Matt Bartels - mattxyz at earthlink.net


Tweets -
Today Michael Hobbs & I led our eighth annual Seattle Audubon King County Big Day field trip. Joined this year by Sharon Aagard-Cormier & Steve Sher, we had a fun day zooming around King County in great weather -- cloudy but not rainy for the entire day, This was the earliest in the year we'd ever tried the Big Day, and the species count reflected the birds yet to come -- in the end, we came up with 116 species -- 10 fewer than the King County big day record.

Our day began auspiciously - We met at 4:30 at Marymoor Park, and headed to the Model Airplane field where we were able to find Barn Owl without too much trouble. Next , still in the darkness, we headed out to Red Brick Road. Another 1-2 Barn Owls greeted us at the marsh there, followed quickly by Sora, American Bittern & Virginia Rail. After a bit of listening , we were able to hear a distant Great Horned Owl hooting across the water -- adding in a few ducks & marsh species, and we had 20+ species before our official daylight start at 5:45 back at Marymoor. Marymoor was hopping with birds, and we quickly added a bunch of passerines -- highlights at Marymoor included a couple Nashville Warblers, and a Hammond's Flycatcher. We also had Orange-crowned, Wilson's , Common Yellowthroat and many Yellow-rumped Warblers, Evening Grosbeaks, and four species of woodpecker [missing only Pileated of the regulars].

Next up was the Snoqualmie Valley -- at West Snoquamie Valley Rd., we picked up the crucial Starling & House Sparrow combo. Up to Stoessel Creek & Kelly Rd., we heard Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Pacific Wren, called in a Pileated Woodpecker, and had the first of many Band-tailed Pigeons. At Moss Lake, we added Hutton's Vireo, Mourning Dove and Townsend's Warbler.

Moving next to Stillwater and the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, we had our species of the day: Brown Bear, eating grass a couple hundred yards out, it sat up and seemed to wave to us. Besides the bear, we also had a gorgeous Western Tanager, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Belted Kingfisher & Ring-necked Duck.

Tokul Creek in Fall City served up Spotted Sandpiper & American Dipper, and the stop at Snoqualmie Falls was good with a Peregrine Falcon on the nest [one fuzzball visible, the rest presumably being sat-upon].

Next up - after a drive - Emerald Downs in Auburn -- the flooded fields along M Street are normally great, but they were the start of some quiet birding, with no shorebirds and only Northern Shoveller new for our day list. Lake Fenwick was overrun with frisbee golfers, but near the lake we had a tree full of warblers with better looks at Townsend's Warbler and another Nashville.

Along Frager Rd., we found Western Scrub-Jay and 30+ Eurasian Collared Doves, along with our first and only Brewer's Blackbirds of the trip. 285th Street, as reported yesterday, was hosting a Western Kingbird. Across the road from the ponds, we had Least Sandpiper and our first Greater Yellowlegs. Smith Brothers' Dairy was hosting an American Kestrel. At the Grassy Knoll overlook for the Kent Ponds, we found our only Cinnamon Teal for the day. 204th St. had many Greater Yellowlegs, a few Lesser Yellowlegs and some heard-only peeps.

Moving on to West Seattle, we added a pile of birds as the day wound down - Caspian Terns and our first Pigeon Guillemots at T-107 Turning Basin Park, Brandt's & Pelagic Cormorants , Western Grebe, Rhino Auklet, Barrow's Goldeneye & Surf Scoter at Jack Block Park, Horned Grebe & White-winged Scoter at Duwamish Head, Brant at Alki Point, Red-necked Grebe, Harlequin Duck & Common Loon at Constellation Park, and Common Goldeneye & White-winged Scoter at MeKwaMooks. We ended the day as light faded standing near the Barred Owl box at Lincoln Park -- despite a long wait searching the nearby trees, no Barred Owls would appear for us.

Notable misses for the day included: Cackling Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Merlin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Purple Martin, American Pipit, & Cassin's Vireo.

Overall, it was a great day -- lots of fun birds, great company and plenty of bad puns to tide us through.

Matt Bartels [and Michael Hobbs]
Seattle, WA