Tweets ? the morning was mostly cloudy, but the rain held off except for a few drops now and then ? barely enough to even get binocular eyepieces spattered. Week 19, which runs through Saturday, is the week of the year with the largest cumulative species count for the park with 147 species tallied in total over the last 20+ years. This is primarily because of the chance of late lingering winter birds, a plethora of migrants, and a large number of summer breeding birds all potentially present during these seven days. In any given year, however, migrants may or may not have passed, wintering birds may or may not have moved north, summer birds may or may not have yet returned. We tend to get large species counts on our visits for this week, but that is not guaranteed. What is guaranteed is that we know, perhaps, even less exactly which birds will turn up than for most weeks of the year.

Today, we had a smattering of lingering birds, and a good number of the other categories, and yet we couldn?t find some birds which would seem to be ?expected?. It made for a strange day.

Highlights:
a.. Only 3 species of duck (pair of Gadwall, Mallards with first duckling, several Common Mergansers)
b.. Spotted Sandpiper ? 1 or 2 below weir, one further up the slough
c.. COMMON LOON ? one seen flying towards lake
d.. Barn Owl ? Matt had one over the East Meadow, where they have been scarce for months
e.. Western Screech-Owl ? Matt heard interaction between birds, then we both saw at least 1 several times
f.. Great Horned Owl ? being mobbed by crows in large maple near stage, around 5:45 a.m.
g.. Hairy Woodpecker ? male at Rowing Club
h.. SWAINSON? S THRUSH ? first of 2017, at least 1 seen, several more heard pre-dawn
i.. Cedar Waxwings ? first for us since a small flock in February
j.. Orange-crowned Warbler ? Maybe 3
k.. Common Yellowthroat ? by far the most abundant warbler
l.. YELLOW WARBLER ? first of 2017 for us, several, though mostly heard-only
m.. Yellow-rumped Warbler ? Only a few, all observed birds were Audubon?s
n.. Black-throated Gray Warbler ? good look near Art Barn, another heard across from windmill
o.. Wilson?s Warbler ? common ? perhaps 8 total
p.. Golden-crowned Sparrow ? a couple of lingering birds
q.. WESTERN TANAGER ? our first for 2017 ? 3 females
r.. Black-headed Grosbeak ? singing males were ubiquitous, singing incessantly
s.. LAZULI BUNTING ? two males at south end of East Meadow ? first for 2017, and our 3rd earliest sighting ever
t.. BULLOCK?S ORIOLE ? one male ? first for 2017
Misses today included: Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Rock Pigeon, Vaux?s Swift, Green Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Steller?s Jay, Cliff Swallow, and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Even with all those misses, we managed 59 species, with 5 new species for the year.

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