Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2014-05-22
Date: May 22 12:25:23 2014
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at frontier.com


Tweets ? there were about two dozen birders out today, on a very fine morning. As we gathered at 5:30 a.m., we were rudely interrupted :) by Sharon calling to tell us there were LAZULI BUNTINGS near the east birding kiosk at Lot G. So we all piled into cars and raced over there. Sure enough, we enjoyed great looks at a male Laz. Suddenly, I noticed two birds flying fairly low to the east. It was two WHIMBREL !!! This is the first time we?ve ever had Whimbrel on one of my surveys, though there have been two prior reports from Marymoor that I am aware of. A fabulous start to the day, even if it delayed the beginning of the actual walk. The Whimbrels looked like they might land at the model airplane field, but they appeared to think better of that, and were last seen flying out to the northeast.

Other highlights:

Wood Duck First WODU ducklings of the season
Great Blue Heron Young are developing flight feathers
Bald Eagle Did this year?s fledge? 3+ adults, 3+ juveniles
WHIMBREL See above and below for notes
Mourning Dove Two sightings of single birds
Barn Owl The real ?early birds? amongst us saw 1, 4:30ish
Short-eared Owl Ditto
Belted Kingfisher Heard and seen by a few, heading up the slough
Hairy Woodpecker One east of boardwalk
Western Wood-Pewee Heard ~3
Willow Flycatcher Heard 1; First of Year
Pac.-slope Flycatcher Heard 1
Purple Martin Male seen flying over lake
N. R.-winged Swallow Two at Compost Piles
Brown Creeper Singing near mansion
Swainson?s Thrush First singing of the season
LAZULI BUNTING Probably 3 males total, NE part of Dog Area
Bullock?s Oriole Some great looks
Purple Finch Pair copulating
Evening Grosbeak More flyovers

The previous sightings that I know of for WHIMBREL were ~50 birds seen 2000-05-14 by Steve Pink, and ~10 birds seen 2010-06-19 by John Farley. Whimbrel is my personal 208th species for the park.

The LAZULI BUNTINGS were seen along the trail that separates the Dog Meadow from the East Meadow, and in the eastern part of Snag Row.

For the day, we had 67 species. For the year, adding WHIMBREL, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, and LAZULI BUNTING, we?re at 132 species.

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