Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2018-01-04
Date: Thu Jan 4 14:08:08 PST 2018
From: birdmarymoor at gmail.com - birdmarymoor at gmail.com

Tweets -; I've been doing this a long time -; this my 24th year of weekly bird surveys at the park, yet there are still surprises almost every week. There was a lot of nothing-special today; with the weather not too cold, but with overcast and dead air [windless, barometer dropping], we had lots of walking around seeing/hearing nothing. But every now and then... :)

Highlights:
a.. Greater White-fronted Goose -; one with Cackling Geese
b.. Wood Duck -; two at small Rowing Club pond
c.. Greater Scaup -; three in slough
d.. Horned Grebe -; one far out on lake
e.. Western Grebe -; three far out on lake, seen late
f.. Virginia Rail -; one seen well *
g.. Wilson's Snipe -; three along slough below weir, seen well
h.. Green Heron -; one at Rowing Club main pond
i.. Barn Owl -; our only owl -; one at windmill really early, 1-2 East Meadow after 7am
j.. Pileated Woodpecker -; one heard calling, seen flying distantly to the SE
k.. COMMON REDPOLL -; two at Rowing Club **
* The VIRGINIA RAIL was a shocker, not because we don't have them this time of year, but because it was walking down the very narrow trail, through the blackberries, that runs from the Dog Area sheds near the first Dog Swim Beach to the Pea Patch. As we approached, it ducked into the blackberries and disappeared. This is at least 100 feet from the slough, and is nowhere near any marshy area!

** The COMMON REDPOLL were great. We were at the Rowing Club, bemoaning the fact that the only finches we'd seen were some terrible looks at a few HOUSE FINCH, when Matt alerted to two flying finches. I tracked them, noting the deeply notched tail and the lack of siskin-like longitudinal wing stripes, and listening to the call, while Matt whipped out his phone and started to play the redpoll calls. Though distant, the two finches immediately turned and descended, landing in the alder next to us! This was my first Common Redpoll sighting at Marymoor since Halloween day, 1996! This is only the 4th-ever Marymoor Common Redpoll report that I know of ever, the other two being 1-2 birds seen by Brian Bell amongst hundreds of Pine Siskins on 2008-01-10, and one bird photographed by Barry Brugman on 2016-03-21. [A few minutes later, we had a flock of about 40 PINE SISKIN, our 3rd finch species for the day]

Misses today included American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Cooper's Hawk, Downy Woodpecker (maybe heard), Bushtit, Brown Creeper, Marsh Wren (maybe heard), Purple Finch, and Lincoln's Sparrow.

So, a ho-hum start to 2018 for the Marymoor Survey, with 52 species, and nothing of note -; Hah!

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