Hi Tweeters,


I got an early start at Discovery Park this morning, and I'm glad I did because my 2 favorite sightings happened right around sunrise.? Birds were fairly active early, and then as Michael Hobbs said, "it was almost too nice a day".? I managed a personal high count at Discovery of 77 species, but I really had to work for them later in the morning, and there were a number of fairly likely species that I couldn't find.? Notable sightings included:

- Black-bellied Plover - 2 on the beach north of west point around sunrise.? A long-awaited King Co lifer, and seeing one in breeding plumage was especially nice!
- Whimbrel - a flock of 7 flew directly over West Point before sunrise, heading swiftly to the north.
- at least 5 Marbled Murrelets, and possibly several more than that as there were moving areound and diving.? Some were in binocular range.
- 1 each of the "invasive" Barred Owl and Eurasian Collared-Dove

- Huge globs of Yellow-rumps, including several groups of 5-20 that were feeding on the ground in shady areas that had fallen plant matter (I think mostly under Big Leaf Maples).? I'm not used to seeing breeding-plumage warblers feeding on the ground almost like sparrows!

- spring arrivals included Wilson's and Black-throated Gray Warbler, Warbling Vireo, and Hammond's Flycatcher.
- other slightly less common Disco. birds included American Pipit, Evening Grosbeak, and Hermit Thrush.
- misses included any swallow other than Violet-green, Canada Goose, Hutton's Vireo, Pacific-slope Flycatcher (seen by another birder today).
- Discovery's now up to about 112 species total reported by eBirders for this April.
- I'll upload a few pictures/videos to my eBird checklist later today:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18073202

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA