Tweets ? we had mizzle before sunrise, but then at least 2 hours of really nice warm dry weather before things got a bit more than damp for the last couple of hours this morning. Things were birdy at first, but for a lot of the walk there really didn?t seem to be much around. We are getting into the period of the year with our lowest species counts, but we managed to do pretty well today.

Highlights:

American Wigeon Several in flooded parking area
Horned Grebe I was able to confirm several well out on lake
Western Grebe Several well out on the lake
Great Blue Herons Again, roosting in heronry
Northern Harrier Seen flying the Dog Meadow
Sharp-shinned Hawk Adult at Rowing Club
Virginia Rail Again, heard east of East Meadow
Barn Owl 2 before dawn, found 1 roosting
Short-eared Owl Great show, 7:00-7:30 a.m.
Belted Kingfisher Two sightings
Pileated Woodpecker One seen in flight, west of the slough
Lincoln?s Sparrow One at Dirt Piles
Red Crossbill Some almost-good looks ? 20+ birds

Matt and I had wonderful looks at two BARN OWLS cruising the East Meadow, and sometimes over the Dog Meadow, from about 6:45-7:15 this morning. At about 7:00, they were joined by a SHORT-EARED OWL, which was seen as late as about 7:30 - by that time it was over at the model airplane field. We?d seen one Barn Owl appear to choose a roosting location, so when we were doing the regular walk through the East Meadow, I checked out that same bush. Sure enough, we could see the face of a Barn Owl through gaps in the branches.

For the day, we managed 60 species. Horned Grebe was new for 2013, bringing the year list to 80 species.

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