Last weekend?s rain may have brought some relief but the ponds are still mostly dry except for the Promontory Pond and downstream. As a result, no blackbirds or rails and only a single Marsh Wren were in evidence today. On the other hand, raptors seemed to be particularly successful, or at least my timing was better than usual:

Barn Owls - 2 birds seen over the meadows, each carrying prey, one in a bee-line towards the hangar buildings ? still feeding young?
Cooper?s Hawk - one adult carrying prey over the meadows; in addition, another bird was kekking from the cottonwoods near Frog Pond; one juvenile was chasing Kingfishers over Promontory Pond for at least 15 minutes?whenever it got close, the Kingfisher would dive into the water; two juveniles were begging constantly in Kingfisher Basin, not that far from the nest tree; they moved around every few minutes and at least one squirrel was very irritated at their presence.
Video: https://youtu.be/eN-9TbOWUEs <https://youtu.be/eN-9TbOWUEs>
Merlin - at least 2 birds, 3 sightings: one was carrying prey, over the wetlands; another was cruising high over the meadows and made several half-hearted lunges at dragonflies; another was seen hunting over the north end, lower down.

Other sightings:
Pied-billed Grebe - female with 3 young still in Dead-end Pond; the young were actually trying to dive for food instead of just chasing mom
Osprey - one bird was circling over the sail marina at the north end, keeping the pigeons in the air
Ring-billed (at least 3), California (at least 6) and several Glaucous-winged Gull were loafing on the NOAA dock, along with a dozen Killdeer
Belted Kingfisher - 2 males were in Promontory Pond; two months since they have been around
Western Wood-Pewee and Pacific-slope Flycatcher - one apiece
Common Yellowthroat - despite the low water, young yellowthroat were everywhere, very vocal
Black-headed Grosbeak - first since early June

For the morning, 48 species.
Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24456594 <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24456594>
Scott Ramos
Seattle
Magnuson Park Geography <https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zXRxfq3LHS_o.kvemGrlPu-NM&usp=sharing>