The weather has warmed up since the cold snap of last week, but there were still patches of ice and frozen ground. The overcast skies leaked a little rain now and then but overall, it was a nice morning. Passerines in particular seemed to be enjoying the reprieve as activity approached frenetic at times. Now that the hawthorn berries have frozen and thawed, they seemed to be attracting everyone. A few notables:

Cackling Goose - 8 Taverner?s; not that common to have Cacklers in the park
Raptors included a young Sharp-shinned Hawk on Promontory Point, a banded adult male Cooper?s Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk and adult and juvenile Bald Eagles
Band-tailed Pigeon - 5 flew in to the Madronas on Promontory Point
Lincoln?s Sparrow - at least half a dozen; seemed to be everywhere
White-throated Sparrow - tan-striped; first of year!
http://youtu.be/Lm_6RgS489Q

If you ask what brightly colored bird with a black stripe across the chest was eating the Madrona berries in December, a likely response would be Varied Thrush. Well, there were several doing so, but here is someone else:
http://youtu.be/oJM8bXRDqls

For the day, 58 species; with WTSP, 136 species for the year.
Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20786634 <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20786634>
Scott Ramos
Seattle