Tweets ? A nice enough spring day, though surprisingly quiet at times. A few species were abundant, but we had to work rather hard to pick up more. Luckily, with the big group, and quite a few good birders, we were able to track down a good list of species.

Highlights:

Wood Duck Pair at lake with mixed duckling clutch
Mallard I believe 3 clutches of ducklings total
Common Merganser Nine around weir
Great Blue Heron Baby ?grum grum grum? calls from heronry
Band-tailed Pigeon Nice flyby over fields 7-8-9
Barn Owl Matt had one at windmill very early
Great Horned Owl Matt heard one to the west of the park entrance
- all 5 woodpeckers -
Warbling Vireo 1 east of Dog Meadow, 1 at Rowing Club ? FOY
- six swallow species ? including 3 N. Rough-winged at Viewing Mound
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 lingering birds
American Pipit Single flyover
Or.-crowned Warbler Not too many, not very cooperative
C. Yellowthroat MANY singing birds
Y.-rumped Warbler MANY flocks, almost all ?Audubon?s?
Bl.-thr. Gray Warbler One singing across slough from windmill ? FOY
Wilson?s Warbler One silent male in Dog Meadow ? FOY
CHIPPING SPARROW One in Pea Patch ? FOY
Wh.-cr. Sparrow Gambelii subspecies heard, as well as expected Pugetensis
Black-headed Grosbeak 1-2 singing west of slough ? FOY

The WOOD DUCKS at the lake had 8-9 ducklings, a majority of which were HOODED MERGANSER ducklings.

We were a little disappointed to have no flycatchers, and to have such low warbler numbers (excluding the ubiquitous Yellowthroats and Yellow-rumps).

A good mammal day helped though: Besides the introduced Eastern Gray Squirrels and Eastern Cottontails, we also had two DEER, two AMERICAN BEAVER at the weir, a COYOTE, and a MUSKRAT.

For the day, 65 species of bird. For the year, adding Warbling Vireo, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson?s Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, and Black-headed Grosbeak, we?re at 120 species for the year.

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