Tweets ? On this day of Imbolc, things certainly still felt very wintery. It was a nippy 18 degrees when we started (!!!), though with just a thin haze, the sun did eventually warm things up. It was 40 degrees when we left at 11:45. Frozen water around the area meant that the slough (especially below the weir) was filled with ducks and geese and Killdeer and Snipe. Much of the rest of the walk was pretty quiet, but the last hour ?heated up?; as the temperature rose, the birds came out.

Highlights:

Snow Goose Two, I think, both juveniles
Cackling Goose About 150 ? they typically get sparser and scarcer after this week
American Wigeon 1 below weir
Greater Scaup At least 1
Lesser Scaup At least 2
Hooded Merganser Especially numerous
- 11 species of duck - In total
Wilson?s Snipe Six together below weir, near shore
Green Heron Fishing from Beaver Lodge *again*
- all 5 woodpeckers - Hairy new for year
MERLIN New for 2017 ? SW of mansion
Northern Shrike Early, N of fields 7-8-9, later east of Viewing Mound
HUTTON?S VIREO One SW of mansion in Doug Firs ? rare for Marymoor

Misses today included Rock Pigeon, gulls besides GWGU (had 1 with black wingtips), any accipiter, Pacific and Marsh Wrens, and White-crowned Sparrow.

Still, we managed 55 species. Adding HAIRY WOODPECKER, MERLIN, and HUTTON?S VIREO, we?re at 76 species for the year.

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