Tweets ? We?re into the ?Summer doldrums?, when the bird list is pretty predictable. The last week in June, in fact, has the lowest cumulative number of species seen of any week of the year at just 90. This week isn?t quite as bad, at 103, but it?s still low. That said, the birding is still good at Marymoor right now, especially on a morning like today?s that was neither too hot, nor too cold, was overcast but not yet really threatening, and where the breeze was mostly just a spotty annoyance. The species list might be predictable, but seeing all of the baby birds and breeding behaviors is quite fun.

Highlights:

Pied-billed Grebe 1 from Lake Platform ? first since early April
Great Blue Heron First independently fishing juvenile of the year
Green Heron 1 seen twice, or 2. Briefly seen at Rowing Club pond
Red-tailed Hawk 2 almost-grown young on odd-snag nest
Black Swift Around a dozen to the SE, and some close looks
- all 5 woodpeckers - But Hairy and Pileated barely seen
Wilson?s Warbler Still one singing far downstream of weir
Dark-eyed Junco MANY juveniles

We had good looks at two AMERICAN BEAVERS, one of which appeared to be a much smaller juvenile.

For the day, 63 species of bird. Misses included Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, and Pine Siskin. The only other bird previously seen at all commonly this time of the year that we missed today is Red-eyed Vireo, a species which has pretty much disappeared from the park. We?ve only had 8 sightings since 2009, and none since 2013. Before that, we pretty much always had a singing male or two in summer, and we had confirmed breeding in at least 3 years.

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