Tweets ? a gorgeous morning with lots of birds today. Owls were a highlight, with everyone getting to see a day-roosting Barn Owl, and with two more species seen pre-dawn. More than 1000 Cackling Geese were also special.

Highlights:
a.. Greater White-fronted Goose ? adult present, possibly same bird as last week
b.. Cackling Goose ? maybe 1200
c.. Green-winged Teal ? around 50 below weir
d.. Lesser Scaup ? seen from Lake Platform (verified later)
e.. Band-tailed Pigeon ? one, close flyby, first December sighting ever, and only 5th ever for Nov-Feb
f.. Virginia Rail ? one heard from bend in boardwalk
g.. Green Heron ? one sitting on beaver lodge across from Dog Central
h.. Cooper?s Hawk ? many sightings, unsure of how many birds (maybe 1)
i.. Barn Owl ? seen after 7 a.m. briefly, then found roosting in willows along east edge of East Meadow
j.. Western Screech-Owl ? Matt & I saw one predawn near east end of boardwalk
k.. Northern Saw-whet Owl ? Matt saw one early predawn near east end of boardwalk
l.. Hairy Woodpecker ? two sightings, including a white-bellied ?interior west? female at Pea Patch
m.. PEREGRINE FALCON ? flyby
n.. Common Raven ? First of Fall ? two, which flew around and perched, calling
o.. Cedar Waxwing ? flock of five at Rowing Club
p.. Townsend?s Warbler ? Milt spotted one near mansion
After the walk, I made a quick scan of the lake, trying to confirm the identity of the SCAUP (3 were LESSER, a 4th may have been GREATER), and to figure out if a grebe we?d seen had been WESTERN or HORNED GREBE ? still don?t know, since I was able to find one Horned and four Western on the late scan. :) New for the list were one male HOODED MERGANSER and 7 COMMON MERGANSERS. I also had a large numbers of PIED-BILLED GREBE (30+) and BUFFLEHEAD (80+), where we?d had about 2 and 15 respectively from the Lake Platform.

After weeks of limited/no sightings of ANNA?S HUMMINGBIRDS, we had males on all of their usual territorial perches today. Maybe the coming solstice is telling them to get back to their spots and attract some females.

For the day, 63 species, which is pretty decent for December.

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