Tweets ? we had a bit of drizzle around 9, and lighting conditions were poor for much of the morning, but it really wasn?t too bad. No chill, no wind, and a lot of birds. The birds were distinctly ?clumpy?, though, with long stretches of not much, and then large active mixed flocks. This time of year, a lot of things can show up. They did today, though we had nothing really unusual.

Highlights:

Mourning Dove 2 sightings, including lake flyby chased by 2 hummers
Barn Owl 3-4 birds, active late past dawn
Western Screech-Owl Matt had one early near start of boardwalk
Merlin Barn Swallows alerted us to a flyby
Peregrine Falcon Saw one soaring as I drove through the park after the walk
Pac.-slope Flycatcher Two near start of boardwalk
Purple Martin Still a couple around. Only our 5th Sept. sighting
Violet-green Swallow Maybe 5 still around
Barn Swallow 120+
Or.-crowned Warbler Maybe 10
C. Yellowthroat At least a dozen: adult juvenile male female
Yellow Warbler No more than a couple
Bl.-thr. Gray Warbler Half dozen
Wilson?s Warbler Only 1, I believe
Savannah Sparrow At least 20
Lincoln?s Sparrow At least 4
Golden-cr. Sparrow 1 from Viewing Mound early. First of Fall
Western Tanager 2
Pine Siskin 2

The BARN OWLS again put on an amazing show between 6:15 and 6:50, when we left them to go start the walk. 2-3 birds in the East Meadow and south of the model airplane field, in pretty much full daylight. One was chased by a Cooper?s Hawk again. If you want to see Barn Owls, I?d recommend the Viewing Mound tomorrow or Saturday morning, and plan to arrive before 6:30. They have been particularly active in the mornings in the last week.

Notable misses were few today: Band-tailed Pigeon, Western Wood-Pewee (often still here this late, but maybe done for this year), Bushtit, European Starling, and Black-headed Grosbeak.

Despite those misses, and despite not having anything truly rare, we ended up with 68 species!

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