Tweets -; The good news was that it was warm (51+) and not raining; we got only a few minutes of breeze-blown mist, and the rest of the morning was dry. There was a bit of breeze when we were out in the open, especially atop the Viewing Mound, but the lake was pretty calm. It was darkly overcast, however. It was also VERY quiet, with low numbers of most species, and our lowest species count yet for 2018.

Highlights:
a.. Cackling Goose -; many large flocks between 7:30 and 8:00, heading southeast -; 1500 birds
b.. Horned Grebe -; one far out from the Lake Platform
c.. Barn Owl -; Matt had one at the windmill very early, and we had one from the Viewing Mound at 6:45am
d.. Belted Kingfisher -; two males
e.. Hairy Woodpecker -; one at Rowing Club, near and simultaneously with our only Downy
f.. PEREGRINE FALCON -; juvenile flying southeast over East Meadow -; new for 2018
g.. NO FINCHES AT ALL -; I don't think that's ever happened before
h.. Golden-crowned Sparrow -; especially numerous
i.. Dark-eyed Junco -; probably 2nd most abundant species after Cackling Goose
j.. YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER -; 1 seen, at least 1 more heard -; first for 2018. Couldn't quite nail down Aud. vs. Myrt.
Anna's Hummingbird, Brown Creeper, Bewick's Wren, Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and Red-winged Blackbird were heard singing today.

Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, Steller's Jay, Bushtit, and House Finch -; a short list considering how few species we had today. But the 2nd week in February has our second lowest cumulative number of species seen, beating out only the last week in January, 96 vs. 94, so a short list is to be expected now.

For the day, we did manage 48 species, with two new ones (PEFA and YRWA) to bring the 2018 list to 73.

Oh, and at the Rowing Club pond, we had our first turtle of the year, a Red-eared Slider.

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