Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2017-09-21
Date: Sep 21 14:51:09 2017
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at frontier.com


Tweets ? arguably the best day birding at Marymoor ever. No, really. The place was just dripping with birds. The weather cooperated by hardly dripping at all. Week 38 is often a pretty special week during fall migration, but it really outdid itself this time.

Highlights:
a.. Cackling Goose ? two or three flocks ? First of Fall (FOF)
b.. Western Grebe ? one on lake
c.. Virginia Rail ? one heard spontaneously calling near Lake Platform
d.. DOWITCHERS ? four, presumed LONG-BILLED, in flight with ~8 other shorebirds (Pectorals?)
e.. Glaucous-winged Gull ? long overdue FOF
f.. Double-crested Cormorant ? at least 2; FOF
g.. TURKEY VULTURE ? a tight kettle of TWENTY-ONE, moving south
h.. Northern Harrier ? probably at least 6 birds; all the ones seen well juveniles
i.. Sharp-shinned Hawk ? one ? FOF
j.. Barn Owl ? one at south end of East Meadow, 6:32 am. First in 5 weeks
k.. Hairy Woodpecker ? one across the slough
l.. Pileated Woodpecker ? one seen distantly in flight
m.. AMERICAN KESTREL ? beautiful adult male ? First for 2017
n.. MERLIN ? chased Kestrel, as well as many other birds
o.. Western Wood-Pewee ? 2
p.. Willow Flycatcher ? 1
q.. Warbling Vireo ? 1 at Rowing Club
r.. Violet-green Swallow ? everywhere; probably 120+
s.. Barn Swallow ? at least 10
t.. Ruby-crowned Kinglet ? perhaps 4; FOF
u.. Varied Thrush ? perhaps 4; FOF
v.. LAPLAND LONGSPUR ? at least 3, East Meadow & Dog Meadow
w.. Orange-crowned warbler ? in the ballpark of 40 birds!
x.. Common Yellowthroat ? numbers down, but still a dozen or so
y.. Yellow Warbler ? perhaps 10
z.. Yellow-rumped Warbler ? drab Audubon?s type ? about 15
aa.. Black-throated Gray Warbler ? ~4
ab.. Townsends?s Warbler ? 1 or 2 at Rowing Club
ac.. Savannah Sparrow ? maybe 50
ad.. CLAY-COLORED SPARROW ? almost positive of ID (will look at photos later). 1 at Pea Patch
ae.. Fox Sparrow ? 25, many singing; FOF
af.. LINCOLN?S SPARROW ? at least 20, with one singing
ag.. Western Tanager ? at least 4; FOF
ah.. Western Meadowlark ? at least 2
I?m pretty certain we set high counts for Dowitcher, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Orange-crowned Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, and Lincoln?s Sparrow

Our total for the day, at 76 species, is almost certainly a high count for fall, and very close to our all-time high species count over the last 23 years!

I didn?t want to leave; I?m pretty sure with more time we could have topped 80 species. But I?m leading a field trip tomorrow morning at the WOS conference in Whatcom Co., so I had to race home to head north.

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