Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2014-11-26
Date: Nov 26 20:28:36 2014
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at frontier.com


Following yesterday?s rain and last night?s stiff winds, I was surprised at how pleasant the weather was this morning. The wind died down right around sunrise, and we had clouds, a few patches of blue skies, and tropical temperatures ? 57-60 degrees in the last week in November! It wasn?t terribly birdy, however.

Highlights:

Cackling Goose 800-1000 came in at sunrise, but didn?t land
Wood Duck 2 males, 1 female at mouth of slough
Barn Owl Sharon had one around 6:40 a.m.
R.-breasted Sapsucker 1 at start of boardwalk. First since early Oct.
American Kestrel Male between Compost Piles and airplane field
Common Raven Two flying west of the slough

That?s about it for highlights. Misses for the day included Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Wilson?s Snipe, Northern Shrike, Bushtit, Lincoln?s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, and American Goldfinch.

Even though the CACKLING GEESE never landed (well, a few may have lit for a minute or two before exploding back into the air), it?s quite a sight to see so many birds flying around. The huge flock fragmented into many small flocks. Many times during the morning, lines of geese (15-50) would pass overhead. There seemed no consensus as to destination.

It was very nice to see the gorgeous male AMERICAN KESTREL, which has been oft-photographed by others in the last few weeks, but never seen on our Thursday surveys until today.

I did catch a glimpse of the partially leucistic GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET south of the windmill.

After Marymoor, I headed down to LAKE SAMMAMISH STATE PARK to try for the American White Pelican. No luck with that, but in the hour or so I was down there, I did see 35 species. What surprised me most was that EIGHT of those were species not seen at Marymoor this morning: Northern Shoveler, Common Goldeneye, Common Loon, Western Grebe, California Gull, Herring Gull, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and American Goldfinch.

So, for the day, 52 species at Marymoor.

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