Tweets -; the weather was as good as could be hoped for today, with zero precipitation from the 7:00 am -; noon (but with some wet immediately before and some immediately after), no wind, thin enough overcast for pretty good seeing, and not *too* cold (37-43). It was fairly birdy too, though unsurprisingly there weren't any surprises amongst the species seen. Still, it was a great walk and we had some good stuff, even enjoying things like a bathing GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET with his crest up full.

Highlights:
a.. Virginia Rail -; responded to clapping at the crook in the boardwalk
b.. Killdeer -; I counted 40 on Fields 7-8-9, and certainly missed some amongst the more numerous mole hills
c.. Mew Gull -; a couple hundred on grass soccer fields; ALL mews except for a couple of Glaucous-winged Gulls
d.. Downy Woodpecker -; somewhere around 5 birds
e.. Hairy Woodpecker -; several sightings, both male and female seen
f.. Northern Flicker -; possibly into double-digits
g.. Pileated Woodpecker -; two males at Rowing Club
h.. Northern Shrike -; adult between Compost Piles and model airplane field again
i.. Pine Siskin -; biggest flock yet for this winter
j.. Western Meadowlark -; 8 in Dog Meadow
Best sighting was probably the 5 RIVER OTTERS in the slough just below the southernmost dog swimming beach, eating fish. One was later in the Rowing Club pond.

Only 8 species of geese and ducks, and low numbers of most of those. Misses included Ring-necked Duck, Ring-billed Gull, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird.

Singing birds included Anna's Hummingbird (singing and displaying), Black-capped Chickadee, Pacific Wren, Song Sparrow, and Golden-crowned Sparrow. Some of the Mallards were doing head bobbing.

And for the day, we managed to find a respectable 53 species.

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