Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2016-04-21
Date: Apr 21 16:52:39 2016
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at frontier.com


Tweets ? a little cooler today than the past few scorchers, and breezy at first. I was hoping that the shift in weather would mean that *everything* would have flown in overnight and we?d have one of those phenomenal days today. No such luck. Instead, it seems that the weather convinced many species to *leave*. What stayed are species that are mostly busy breeding now, and are pretty quiet. That?s not *quite* true, as we did have a couple of new species, including a BULLOCKS?S ORIOLE that was a real surprise for this date.

Mosquitoes were fairly fierce today.

Highlights:

American Wigeon Pair below weir ? getting late for them here
Mallard First ducklings ? about 5 on far side of slough
Common Goldeneye Down to just 1 female in slough
COMMON LOON 1 flew over mansion just after 6, 1 at lake, FOY
Green Heron 1 at Rowing Club ? first in 4 weeks
SPOTTED SANDPIPER 1 at weir
- all 5 woodpeckers -
Merlin Eating what looked like a Tree Swallow
American Pipit 10+ in NE corner fields
Golden-cr. Sparrow Down to just 1 sorry-looking bird
BULLOCK?S ORIOLE Brilliant male flew over lake platform
Evening Grosbeak A few heard-only/at most glimpsed flyovers

We?d not seen a GREEN HERON since March 24th, but today?s bird at the Rowing Club looked like it was probably the same juvenile that overwintered.

Lots of OSPREY action today, including tag-teaming BALD EAGLES forcing an Osprey to drop a fish at the lake.

This is still ridiculously early for SPOTTED SANDPIPER at Marymoor; we?ve never had one before May previously. Today?s bird had a spotted breast, unlike Grace&Ollie?s bird, 2016-04-08.

We were stunned to have a male BULLOCK?S ORIOLE fly over the lake platform and land at the tip-top of a distant cottonwood for longer viewing. This is WAY early for Bullock?s at Marymoor ? we?ve never had one before May, so this was 9 days earlier than our previous earliest sighting. Our median arrival date is closer to May 10.

Birds that have probably cleared out for the season include Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, American Coot, Wilson?s Snipe, most gulls, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Western Meadowlark, all missed for today (and several missed last week too).

For the day, 63 species. COMMON LOON and BULLOCK?S ORIOLE were new for the year, so our 2016 list should be at 109, I believe.

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