Tweets ?

A bit of background here: I did the Wenatchee CBC this winter, and was assigned as my sector the Horan Wildlife Area and about six square blocks of downtown that were mostly filled with warehouses. All in all, it was about a quarter of a square mile, and I spent the whole day walking around birding there. One thing I noticed was that some species came into the sector as dusk approached. I found quite a few species after lunch that we didn?t find before lunch, even though I was birding the same set of trails and roads.

So I decided I should try the same thing at Marymoor sometime, and the first reasonable ?sometime? was today. Three of us arrived before 6:30, and the rest arrived at 7:30. We birded until a little before noon, went out to lunch at Panera, then came back for another couple of hours. By that time everybody was cold, tired, and had the feeling there were few additional species to find, so we went home. But I returned for another go from 5:00 to 6:00.

The morning was frigid, with the temperature at 15 degrees at 6:00 a.m., remaining at that temp when we started at 7:30. It rose all the way to 31 degrees when we broke for lunch, but by then the wind had picked up and the sky clouded over, so it chilled us quite thoroughly. The temperature quickly dropped back to 29 degrees.

The pre-dawn owling produced a heard-only VIRGINIA RAIL for Matt, and nothing else. But once we started the regular walk, it was clear it was going to be a good day. The slough was filled with waterfowl. We did our regular walk in the regular fashion. After lunch, we walked the East Lake Sammamish Trail along the east edge of Marymoor, walked the Marymoor Connector Trail from the model airplane field east to the ELS Trail, and then we made a brief stop at the Viewing Mound again. From 5-6 p.m., I came back and did a quick loop from the East Kiosk around the boardwalk and back. We never did get to the area west of the slough and north of the Rowing Club that I had hoped to include today.

Highlights: (FOY ? First of Year)

Gr. Wh.-fronted Goose 1 adult with huge flock of Cacklers
Snow Goose 1 juvenile joined Cacklers after lunch
Cackling Goose 1000+
Canada Goose Dozens, after none last week
Wood Duck Pair above weir, 2 pair from lake platform
10 at NE corner of lake!!! 10-16 total!
American Wigeon 10 at weir, ~15 at NE corner of lake
Northern Shoveler 3 at NE corner of lake ? FOY
Northern Pintail Male at weir ? FOY
Greater Scaup 1 female in slough was our only scaup
RUDDY DUCK Female from Lake Platform ? First since 2009
In all, we had 14 species of duck
Horned Grebe Three on lake, seen from NE corner
Cooper?s Hawk Adult east of boardwalk area
Killdeer Two with frosty backs (literally), below weir
Wilson?s Snipe One seen well, with frost, below weir
Hairy Woodpecker Seen from Rowing Club dock, across slough
Northern Shrike Adult east of East Meadow ? first since Week 1
Varied Thrush Pair near windmill ? FOY

We had 52 species by lunchtime, which is an unusually good total for February. We added 7 more species during the after-lunch birding.

When I arrived at 5:00 p.m., I was able to find a couple of PACIFIC WRENS in the Big Cottonwood Forest, which had been one of our biggest misses previously. As I walked the boardwalk, I heard a couple of VIRGINIA RAILS calling from the same area that Matt had heard one pre-dawn. Then, as I went north from the east end of the boardwalk, I heard a GREAT HORNED OWL (FOY) calling. This was at 5:30.

I went back via the grass soccer fields, where the huge flock of geese remained until 5:55 p.m. (almost full dark), when the finally took off and flew towards the lake all in a tight, no-nonsense flock. Standing on the Viewing Mound until 6:00 p.m., I could hear the GREAT HORNED OWL move closer and closer to the southeast, but I never saw the bird.

So, we were out for about nine hours total, across about 13 hours of the day. We managed 61 species total - not bad for February in a single square mile. Three species were seen in Week 6 for the first time in the 20 years of my surveys: Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, and Ruddy Duck. Our only notable misses for the day were Bushtit, White-crowned Sparrow, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, and House Sparrow, all of which have been seen 10 or more times in Week 6 during the last 20 years. Of those, though, only Bushtit has been seen regularly this winter. I was speculating that maybe the Bushtits were spending the day huddled together for warmth in some kind of sheltered spot.

In addition to the four species marked First of Year (FOY) above, this was the first time this year that Snow Goose had been seen on a Thursday survey. This brings our year total to 74 species. Five additional species are listed ebird (Lesser Scaup, Herring Gull, Thayer?s Gull, Short-eared Owl, and Common Raven). 61 of the 79 species seen so far this year seems an excellent day.

Three new species for our Week 6 list (cumulative, over the last 20 years), brings the Week 6 list to 91 species. Week 26 (the last week in June) is now the worst week, at only 89 species. Maybe we?ll have to do another Marymoor Long Day that week to bring its total up to par.

Thanks to all of the devoted crew who made this a really fun Long Day, despite the chill.

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