Hi Tweets.....

My monthly eBird report of Eastside Audubon's bird walk at Lake Sammamish follows.

Sharon Aagaard
Bellevue WA
scormieraa001 at hotmail.com

Lake Sammamish State Park, King, Washington, US
Jun 24, 2015 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: Sharon Aagaard and Stan Wood birded with 13 others at Eastside Audubon's monthly bird walk at Lake Sammamish State Park on June 24, 2015, from 8:00 am to noon. Skies were sunny changing to mostly cloudy, 64-74F, 0-2 mph.. HIGHLIGHTS: 1 female COMMON MERGANSER with a at least 8 juveniles trailing behind, periscoping, and popping up like corks, with one riding on her back. Ten minutes later, she was preening on a log with all the young birds smooshed underneath her body. 1 adult GREEN HERON flew in, landed at the top of a very tall snag, with neck stretched out, and stayed for scope views (later, after the walk, while lunching at the Issaquah Costco, we had 3 more sightings.....1 bird, then 2 birds together, all flying from the lake south over the gas station, likely to the ponds in the business park across the road). 2 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS: we had just entered the large cottonwood forest on the west side and heard a loud "kek", looked up and saw one bird fly overhead (giving us 3 good field marks for ID), land at the edge of the forest near the orchard, more "keks" and a second hawk flew in the same direction. We were looking through several trees and lots of leaves making visibility poor for further sightings (again, at Costco, we had another sighting, flying over Costco's parking lot NW towards the lake). 2 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, at the Issaquah Creek Point. 3 BAND-TAILED PIGEONS, 4 RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS (1 juv); 1 PILEATED WOODPECKER; 3 WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES; 5 WILLOW FLYCATCHERS; 1 PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER; 1 HUTTON'S VIREO singing near the orchard; 2 WARBLING VIREOS; 1 RED-EYED VIREO singing near the orchard/large cottonwood forest (3 years in a row); 9 SWAINSON'S THRUSH; One singing male YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER and two juveniles. The nesting pair (in an apple tree in the orchard) I had seen coming in and out of the nest a couple days earlier were not there. Most likely due to several large trucks and workers at the nest sight to replace the footbridge, with one truck parked nearly underneath the nest. 3 BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS; 4 BULLOCK'S ORIOLES; 1 EVENING GROSBEAK heard. 59 species for the day, 124 for the year. Critters: Eastern Gray Squirrels and bunnies. The next bird walk is Wednesday, JULY 22. No pre-registration, just show up depending on your mood or the weather. Since this is a state park, a Discover Pass is necessary to park ($10 daily, $30 annual). We meet in the large parking lot to the left just inside the main park entrance, now signed as the Costco Parking lot, but we meet at the far end towards the lake (not the boat launch entrance).Submitted from BirdLog NA for Android v1.96.

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24062737

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)