Our last official survey for 2016 was pretty uneventful after a bang of a start. The day was relatively warm (up to the low 40?s) and the rain held off except for a few drops near the end. It even, eventually, got light enough to see. Eventually.

Before our 8:00 a.m. official meetup, those of us at the Viewing Mound had good (if distant) looks at a BARN OWL, mostly over the model airplane field, but briefly closer. It was still flying around after 7:30.

Then, as we gathered to start on the main walk, Jordan spotted a SHORT-EARED OWL flying high over the grass soccer fields. It made a circle or two up there, remaining quite high but still giving us good looks.

Other highlights:

Ring-necked Duck Female in slough far below weir ? First of Fall
Greater Scaup A couple of females in the slough
Western Grebe One WAY out on the lake
Green Heron Sitting on the beaver lodge again
Bald Eagle Juvenile(s) as well as our resident pair
Cooper?s Hawk Caught a junco in the Pea Patch
Northern Shrike North of fields 7-8-9
Brown Creeper At least a couple
Western Meadowlark ~12 between Viewing Mound & model airplane field
Purple Finch Some really good looks

Misses today included identifiable gulls besides Glaucous-winged, Steller?s Jay, Bushtit, and Pine Siskin.

For the day, 54 species.

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