The Horned Lark is still present west of the soccer fields, just south of the closed gravel parking lot.

Todd Sahl
Redmond, WA

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 16, 2017, at 1:58 PM, Michael Hobbs <birdmarymoor at frontier.com> wrote:
>
> Tweets ? we had unexpectedly nice weather today, and over a dozen birders. The birds cooperated, making for an excellent day. It was warm, and partly sunny by our start time (though Matt got rained on pre-dawn).
>
> After our recent rains, there was water everywhere. Large puddles in fields and parking lots, water over the paths, water over the boardwalk. It was passible with over-the-ankles boots, but just barely and only with care.
>
> Sadly, we also noticed that the ?odd-snag?, a tremendously old Douglas Fir snag that stood just SW of the park entrance, has broken off very short. For at least a couple of decades, RED-TAILED HAWKS nested atop the snag, which featured a ?toothpick? spike about 6 feet tall that stuck up from above the broken-off top. The hawks would nest at the base of the spike which I expect it made the nest harder for eagles to predate (though we did once witness an eagle take a baby hawk). A few weeks ago, a Red-tail was seen building up the nest for another year; now they will have to find a new place to nest.
>
> Highlights:
>
> Northern Pintail One male in a field puddle ? First for 2017
> California Gull Maybe 3
> Herring Gull At least 1; possibly a Thayer?s or two as well
> Green Heron Continues at Beaver Lodge
> SHORT-EARED OWL Matt & Sharon saw two, pre-dawn, East Meadow
> Red-breasted Sapsucker 2, possibly flirting, Rowing Club
> Pileated Woodpecker Male (first year?), Dog Meadow
> Northern Shrike Seen several times
> HORNED LARK One on soccer fields west of Fields 7-8-9
> - SWALLOWS - About 6. At least one was almost certainly a TREE.
> CEDAR WAXWING A flock of 11, Dog Meadow
> Yellow-rumped Warbler Several ?Audubon?s?
> Western Meadowlark At least 2 at model airplane field
>
> It was a big surprise to find a HORNED LARK on the grass fields just NE of Lot C (where we meet). This is just our 3rd spring sighting ever for Horned Larks at Marymoor (and only our 18th sighting in all). The two previous spring sightings were 2002-02-15 (only one day off from today?s date!) and 2002-04-17.
>
> It was a good day for animal sightings too. In addition to the usual Eastern Gray Squirrels and Eastern Cottontails, Matt *saw* a BEAVER pre-dawn, and we had at least 2 RIVER OTTERS on the lake. At the Rowing Club pond were at least 3 RED-EARED SLIDERS and 1-2 very bright PAINTED TURTLES.
>
> For the day, 60 species. For the year, I believe we?re at 82 species (plus swallow sp.)
>
> == Michael Hobbs
> == www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
> == BirdMarymoor at frontier.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20170216/2ff7fb25/attachment.htm