Tweets ? an interesting day today at the park. There was a high, dark overcast without a hint of wind, and temps in the 50?s. The wind eventually picked up, and the overcast began to break up. No precipitation. It was on-and-off birdy ? as is typical of fall, we?d go long stretches with nothing, and then come across a tree with eight species or something.

Highlights:
a.. Cackling Goose ? many flocks overhead (hundreds of birds total); only about 50 birds landed
b.. TRUMPETER SWAN ? flyover of three birds. One called. First of Fall (FOF), and somewhat early
c.. Ring-necked Duck ? two from Lake Platform
d.. Virginia Rail ? at least 4 called, slough and boardwalk
e.. Mew Gull ? FOF (confirmed) ? at least 3 on grass soccer fields along with Ring-billed, California, and Glaucous-winged (+?Olympics?)
f.. Northern Harrier ? Juvenile over boardwalk area
g.. Great Horned Owl ? Matt heard and saw one along boardwalk areas very early ? FOF
h.. Northern Saw-whet Owl ? Matt heard and saw one near east end of boardwalk, screeching at the GHOW ? FOF.
i.. Pileated Woodpecker ? two sightings, heard many times. Possibly two birds.
j.. Cedar Waxwing ? large flocks still around
k.. American Pipit ? barely heard a couple of times
l.. Pine Siskin ? one or more flocks of about 80 birds
m.. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW ? one working the moss and lichens 15? and more up a small Oregon Ash along the slough ? FOF
We had several overhead flocks of non-Mallard but otherwise unidentified ducks.

This is the earliest confirmed fall sighting for NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL that we?ve had, but the species is fairly newly-known for the park.

After the walk, I re-covered some of the same ground hoping to confirm reports of possible Sora ? no luck there, but I did hear a VARIED THRUSH from the Lake Platform, found a NORTHERN SHRIKE juvenile in the East Meadow (FOF), and spotted 4 KILLDEER in the NE fields. I also saw a group of 6 SWANS on the lake out from Idylwood Beach Park ? five adults and a juvenile. It?s possible our three Trumpeters joined a family of three on the lake.

For the day, 60 species.

I was out last Sunday leading a field trip for members of the National Audubon Society board. We did an abbreviated loop from the Viewing Mound out to the Lake Platform on a very, very nice mid-morning. We had seven species Sunday that we didn?t have today: Snow Goose (flock of ~20 overhead), Wood Duck, Gadwall, American Wigeon. Eurasian Collared-Dove, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Townsend?s Warbler, so our list for this week was 67.

Misses for the week include Hooded Merganser, Lincoln?s Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow.

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