Tweets ? it was an odd day at Marymoor. Clouds came in at sunrise, which kept it dark and cool all morning. There was a bit of a breeze too, which made finding the mostly-silent birds more difficult. We had a lot of misses, plus some odd surprises. But mostly it was fairly birdless.

Highlights:

Common Merganser Three at weir
RED-NECKED GREBE I had one late from NE corner of lake
Green Heron Two juveniles at Rowing Club pond
Cooper?s Hawk One near velodrome just before 6:30
WILSON?S SNIPE 1 at lake, earliest fall sighting ever
Band-tailed Pigeon 2-3 birds
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1 at fields 7-8-9
Barn Owl 1-2 before 6 a.m.
Short-eared Owl? 95% sure, based on darkness, flight
Warbling Vireo 2, west edge of Dog Meadow
Purple Martin Baby looking out of gourd nest, adults overhead
Violet-green Swallow Missed last 2 weeks; about 12-15 today
Bl.-thr. Gray Warbler One, west edge of Dog Meadow
Wilson?s Warbler West edge of Dog Meadow and at least 1 more
Western Tanager Saw two, heard third

We did have large numbers (80+) of HOUSE FINCH, with a good group (40?) of AMERICAN GOLDFINCH (but no Lesser noted).

Numbers for many species were way down. We only had about 3 GREAT BLUE HERONS, and none in the nesting trees. We had no more than 2-3 WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES, heard just 2 SWAINSON?S THRUSH, has probably only a dozen or so AMERICAN ROBINS, no large numbers of CEDAR WAXWINGS, and just 2 or so each of YELLOW WARBLERS, SPOTTED TOWHEES, SAVANNAH SPARROWS, and SONG SPARROWS. I think there was just one BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, and two BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS.

Misses included Pied-billed Grebe, Vaux?s Swift, any woodpecker except Northern Flicker, Willow Flycatcher, Bushtit, Brown Creeper, and Orange-crowned Warbler.

Still, we managed 55 species for this weird day.

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