Tweets ? a really pleasant morning, with clear skies early, and a bit of overcast later, but no wind or rain. Surprises throughout the morning kept things interesting. The trail continues to be flooded, requiring tall rubber boots. There?s about 8? of water in places, both approaching and over the boardwalk. While the lake and river are high, interior areas of the park are not particularly flooded; this storm mostly dumped rain uphill from Marymoor.

Highlights:

Western Grebe 4 seen on lake late in the morning
Green Heron Juvenile at Rowing Club pond
Virginia Rail Called from well inland of usual sites
BONAPARTE?S GULL Five on grass fields at 7:30
N. Saw-whet Owl Heard around 6:00 a.m. near boardwalk
Pileated Woodpecker 1 flew south past weir
Merlin East Meadow & mansion area ? same bird
Northern Shrike Juvenile east of East Meadow today
Varied Thrush Only 1 heard-only
Y.-rumped Warbler At least 2 ?Audubon?s?-type
WILSON?S WARBLER Probably same male as 2 weeks ago ? LATE

We?ve not had very many fall records of BONAPARTE?S GULL at Marymoor, and this record is a couple of weeks later than any other. I thought 5 might be a new high count, but we?ve had 5 before, and I completely forgot the 2005-11-01 record of 16 birds!

The WILSON?S WARBLER was near the Dog Area portapotties, and looked very much like the one from 2 weeks ago. He was already notably late 2 weeks ago. Today?s is a month later than any late bird from previous years.

I drove through the park on the way out, and got the only CANADA GEESE of the day. Pre-sunrise, we had a few large flocks of presumed CACKLING GEESE; during the walk we saw a few more Cacklers. But we?ve yet to have a large flock (100+) land in the park this fall. In previous recent years, we?ve had flocks of hundreds to thousands starting in early October.

For the day, 58 species.

[ While typing this, I was watching birds in our yard. Our female DOWNY WOODPECKER landed on the suet a minute ago, and a COOPER?S HAWK almost got her. Why can?t the Coop?s take juncos or House Finches? They always want our ?good? birds. ]

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