?Apr?s moi, le deluge?. Apparently, the old french guy visited last night, because it was pretty much a deluge this morning. And three of us definitely show all the signs of compulsive behavior, because I was joined by Brian Bell and Matt Bartels joined me. Everyone else managed to find somewhere else to be...

Unsurprisingly, birds were scarce, but we were not totally bereft of sightings. And the morning was not too cold, and the wind and thunder held off until after the walk, so things really weren?t that bad. Except for being really, really wet.

Most notable was seeing all of the damage from Monday?s snow. Small deciduous trees and shrubs were especially hard hit. Fruit trees were hammered, and we lost many alders and willows as well. Large deciduous trees, and conifers, appeared only to have lost a limb or two.

Bird highlights:

- 8 species of duck -
Western Grebe One in slough out from Dog Central
Cooper?s Hawk Viewing Mound before 7:30 ? our only raptor
California Gull 1 adult ? First of Year
HERRING GULL 1 adult ? First of Year
Northern Shrike 1 around 11, north of fields 7-8-9
Fox Sparrow Notably abundant
Western Meadowlark At least 7, north of fields 7-8-9

For the day, we managed 46 species, which I feel is pretty good.

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