Tweets ? Today was a learning experience. I learned that my raincoat is no longer waterproof. Drizzle at 7:00 a.m. quickly moved on through light rain, to heavy rain, to a downpour or three, almost completely dousing the birding possibilities. The rain didn?t slacken until we were leaving the off-leash area, and we had intermittent light rain and drizzle for much of the rest of the morning. Okay, by the Rowing Club there were some glimpses of blue skies. I think the other thing we learned is that a crappy day like today can end up with a pretty good bird list if you keep moving slowly and attentively and just hold the course.

Highlights:

Western Grebe 1 at lake, First of Fall
D.-c. Cormorant One over slough at windmill ? First of Fall
Cooper?s Hawk At least 1 adult, 1 juvenile
Wilson?s Snipe Several seen, including a close flyby of six
Barn Owl Matt & Sharon had several glimpses, East Meadow
Vaux?s Swift Getting late; 2+ at Rowing Club
V.-green Swallow 30 or so over Rowing Club
Barn Swallow 2 over Rowing Club
W. SCRUB-JAY One in Snag Row ? first for my personal park list
Or.-cr. Warbler One at Compost Piles
Y.-rumped Warbler Numbers increasing, and both Aud. and Myrtle?s seen
Evening Grosbeak Heard snatches, finally saw about 8 fly over
House Sparrow Male at Compost Piles again

This is the fourth WESTERN SCRUB-JAY sighting for Marymoor: three in August/September and one in December. For several of us, including Matt and myself, it was a new bird for our personal park lists. My list is now at 212, I believe.

Early on, when the rains were torrential and the skies dimly lit, there were many flocks of ducks overhead. We ended up identifying only WOOD DUCK, MALLARD, NORTHERN SHOVELER, and HOODED MERGANSER, plus a COMMON MERGANSER in the slough. Many of the flyby ducks were probably AMERICAN WIGEON, and I was able to find a few of those at the north end of the lake after the walk. Others probably included Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail, but neither of those could be confirmed. Sharon might also have had Band-tailed Pigeon, and there were a couple of other possible/probable species that we didn?t count.

Besides the usual squirrels and bunnies, we saw one COYOTE on the far side of the slough below the weir. We also heard Pacific Tree Frogs.

Despite the slightly damp weather (that is, I?m *still* slightly damp), we ended up with 60 species! It pays to slog the slog.

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