Hello Tweets,

Eleven birders joined Andy McCormick for the third annual New Year's Day Bird Walk at Marymoor Park in Redmond. It was a cold start to the day but it warmed up nicely. Unfortunately we did not see any owls as we had hoped to. Despite that, visibility was great and we saw a nice assortment of birds including a Merlin, good numbers of Golden-crowned and Fox Sparrows, and close looks at a Pileated Woodpecker hammering at a tree at eye level and a Downy Woodpecker very busy extracting a worm from a tree limb he exposed. Thirty-two Killdeer on the soccer fields was a surprising number and a busy flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers pleased the group.
It's great to start the year birding. I hope everyone has a good year in 2015. Here is the eBird report I submitted.
> Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 21:25:40 -0500
> From: ebird-checklist at cornell.edu
> To: andy_mcc at hotmail.com
> Subject: eBird Report - Marymoor Park, Jan 1, 2015
>
> Marymoor Park, King, US-WA
> Jan 1, 2015 7:00 AM - 1:40 PM
> Protocol: Traveling
> 3.0 mile(s)
> Comments: This New Year's Day Bird Walk was sponsored by Eastside Audubon and led by Andy McCormick. Eleven other birders joined to brave the cold weather and had a good morning of birding. Seven birders left the group at Noon. The weather was cold with temp at 23F in the morning warming to 41F by 1:00 p.m. The wind was calm. Skies were clear and sunny.
> 47 species
>
> Greater White-fronted Goose 3
> Cackling Goose 800
> Canada Goose 72
> Gadwall 3
> American Wigeon 12
> Mallard 40
> Northern Pintail 1
> Green-winged Teal 5
> Bufflehead 3
> Common Goldeneye 2
> Hooded Merganser 1
> Common Merganser 3
> Pied-billed Grebe 2
> Double-crested Cormorant 2
> Great Blue Heron 8
> Bald Eagle 2
> American Coot 4
> Killdeer 32
> Ring-billed Gull 2
> Anna's Hummingbird 1
> Belted Kingfisher 1
> Downy Woodpecker 4
> Northern Flicker 1
> Pileated Woodpecker 1
> Merlin 1 I thought this was a Black subspecies. Face and back very dark even in good light in scope view. Seen perched in tree from the slough side between the slough and the mansion.
> Steller's Jay 3
> American Crow 12
> Black-capped Chickadee 24
> Chestnut-backed Chickadee 5
> Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
> Brown Creeper 3
> Bewick's Wren 1
> Golden-crowned Kinglet 16
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
> American Robin 25
> European Starling 5
> Yellow-rumped Warbler 8
> Spotted Towhee 9 Five were foraging together along the trail from the boardwalk to the East Meadow.
> Fox Sparrow 5
> Song Sparrow 11
> White-crowned Sparrow 1
> Golden-crowned Sparrow 27
> Dark-eyed Junco 13
> Red-winged Blackbird 4
> House Finch 5
> Pine Siskin 20
> American Goldfinch 1 Flying over, heard only
>
> View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S21129916
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
Andy McCormickEastside AudubonBellevue, WA