Tweets ? the bits of sunshine this morning got me out of bed by 8:30, and down to Marymoor not long after. I was in such a rush that I left my coffee at home! I didn?t stay long at Marymoor, though long enough to get nailed by two hail storms. But there were definitely some birds to see.

I saw two species that were new for the year: a battered-looking BARN SWALLOW was over the slough below the weir, amid maybe 70 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS and a few TREE SWALLOWS. This might be the earliest Barn Swallow we?ve ever had at Marymoor.

And at the north end of the East Meadow, I found the First-of-Year SAVANNAH SPARROW. I may have heard another, though it/they were not singing.

I also saw at least 5 other species that we did not have last Thursday: MEW and CALIFORNIA GULLS, a MERLIN (seen several times), a NORTHERN SHRIKE east of the model airplane field, and a LINCOLN?S SPARROW.

In all, I had 36 species in about 1.5 hours, amid some VERY changeable weather.

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