Tweets ? Marymoor was in a fog all morning, with quite limited visibility, no real clearing, and temps hovering just below the freeze. It sounds pretty mediocre, but we managed to dig out quite a few species.

Matt had a great pre-dawn, hearing GREAT HORNED OWL on the west side of West Lake Samm Parkway from the entrance bridge, and hearing NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL about a hundred yards into the park along the main road. He also saw a BARN OWL; we had a few glimpses after 7:00 a.m. of presumed Barn Owls from the viewing mound.

Other highlights:

Gr. Wh.-fronted Goose Two with Cacklers on grass fields
Green-winged Teal Three at weir
Greater Scaup I had 1-2,after the count from the cabana
Common Merganser Several after the count from the cabana
Cooper?s Hawk And maybe Sharpie too
MERLIN One near mansion
Belted Kingfisher One along slough north of the weir
Northern Shrike One in the Dog Meadow
Common Raven One heard
Red Crossbill Still a few around mansion

I have rather informal permission to go out to the cabana at one of the condo complexes. The cabana is visible from the lake platform at Marymoor, and sometimes (like on days when we can?t see that far because of fog), I?ll hit the cabana after the count. Today, there were hoards of birds seen out on the lake there: 80-100 BUFFLEHEAD, 10-20 RING-NECKED DUCKS, ~10 COMMON GOLDENEYE, two scaup, at least one of which was a GREATER SCAUP, 1 male HOODED MERGANSER, six male COMMON MERGANSERS, plus nearly 20 PIED-BILLED GREBE, 1 WESTERN GREBE, 1 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, and a bunch of AMERICAN COOTS. And with the fog, I couldn?t even see very far from the cabana!

Yesterday, I had HAIRY WOODPECKER, and heard PURPLE FINCH.

For the day, counting Matt?s early-morning owls and my after-the-count waterbirds, we hit 61 species. For the year, we?re up to 71 species.

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