Tweets, a frosty by nice morning today. With no wind, a little sun, and with the temperature rising from 32 to 43 throughout the day, it was a nice day for a walk. And while it didn?t feel that birdy a lot of the time, we kept finding interesting stuff.

The most interesting, though, happened at about 5:15 a.m. Matt Bartels had a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL respond from the west end of Snag Row, along the northern edge of the Community Gardens. This is just the 2nd record for Saw-whet at Marymoor!

Other Highlights:

Gr. Wh.-fronted Goose Two with ~250 Cackling Geese
Green-winged Teal Male at Rowing Club pond
Ring-necked Duck First of Fall this week, 2 today
Western Grebe Well out on lake
Merlin Ho hum, another sighting... :)
MOURNING DOVE Two, NE corner of East Meadow
Barn Owl One after 6:30 a.m.
Pileated Woodpecker One near fields 7-8-9
Northern Shrike More than 1, I believe. Vocalizing
Varied Thrush One near windmill
Yellow-rumped Warbler Only 1-2
Townsend?s Warbler 1 near mansion
?Slate-colored? Junco At least 2, male & female, Compost Piles
Western Meadowlark 1, NE corner of East Meadow
Red Crossbill Near mansion

The leucistic HOUSE FINCH was at the Compost/Dirt Piles again today, among a horde of compatriots. Also, there had to be at least 60 DARK-EYED JUNCOS, which may be a new high count for the park.

Matt had Mule Deer early, and we had two COYOTES in the middle of the East Meadow right before sunrise.

No real rarities today, but an amazing 65 species (and only 9 of those were ducks and gulls)! That?s our 4th straight week of 60+ species, and this is late-October/early-November !!!

== Michael Hobbs
== www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== BirdMarymoor at frontier.com