Tweets ? This week, the weather was not as nice as forecast. It was cold to start (33 degrees), and was very slow in warming up. We also got quite a bit of thin overcast, and a nasty north breeze by about 9:30. It was a day of heard-only birds, distant sightings, and quiet periods, with short bouts of great looks and birdy rushes. In all, a fine day of birding.

Highlights:

Wood Duck Pair flew upstream
American Wigeon Several sightings, incl. at lake, Rowing Club
Western Gull One very dark juvenile
Band-tailed Pigeon One seen north of windmill ? FOY
Eur. Collared-Dove One near Osprey nest ? FOY
Rufous Hummingbird First female of the year, Park Office
R.-breasted Sapsucker 1-2 pairs
Hairy Woodpecker 1-3 birds
Pileated Woodpecker Mark saw one flying well to the west
Tree Swallow Checking out martin gourds at lake
Violet-green Swallow Probably 20+
WH.-THR. SPARROW 3 (possibly 4) at Rowing Club parking lot!
Wh.-crowned Sparrow 1 with Golden-crowns at Pea Patch
American Goldfinch 2 in Snag Row near Pea Patch

When we were passing by the GREAT BLUE HERON heronry, we heard a call several times that seemed to be coming from the heronry. It sounded very much like a dove or pigeon, but was not the typical call of any of the doves/herons in this area. There were 18 pairs of eyes searching the ~12 cottonwoods that comprise the heronry, and we could find no birds other than herons up there. It is very unclear that a heron could make the cooing noise that we heard, as their voices are so raspy. Nor could I find any reference to such a vocalization in Birds of North America, nor amongst the recordings in the Cornell Master Set. But we could not find anything else that might have made the call. ???

At the Rowing Club parking lot, in the blackberries immediately north of the southern parking area, we had great looks at three WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS. When I played the iPod, three popped up to the top of the blackberries, giving us great looks. I may have heard the call of a 4th bird off to my right, but I cannot verify a 4th. On January 1st, I saw 3 WTSP about 300 yards NE of that location.

For the day, we had 58 species in all. For the year, adding BAND-TAILED PIGEON, EURASIAN-COLLARED DOVE, and our first Thursday VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS, our year list is now at 88 species.

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