Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2018-11-29
Date: Thu Nov 29 17:28:10 PST 2018
From: Michael Hobbs - birdmarymoor at frontier.com

Tweets -; we had views of Venus and the moon in the early pre-dawn, but then the fog rolled in from about 7am-9am, before rising, and then clearing. More overcast moved in later in the morning, but we never had wind or precipitation, and we did have birds! Many of our common winter birds seemed especially numerous, and gave us some really fantastic looks. Best Bird of the day was a SWAMP SPARROW that really showed off below the Viewing Mound.

Highlights:
a.. Cackling Goose -; hard to count, but maybe 2500, on grass soccer fields
b.. Horned Grebe -; one or two very far out on the lake
c.. Virginia Rail -; one responded from along the boardwalk
d.. California Gull -; 1 or 2, seen late
e.. Green Heron -; 1 on beaver lodge across the slough from Dog Central
f.. Western Screech-Owl -; one heard east of boardwalk around 6:30 a.m.
g.. Great Horned Owl -; Matt heard one west of the park entrance just after 5 a.m.
h.. Hairy Woodpecker -; pair came in right near us, for awkwardly close looks
i.. PILEATED WOODPECKER -; two flew north far across slough; later one very close near Park Office
j.. Northern Shrike -; First seen inside a hawthorn pre-dawn; roost tree? Adult seen near Viewing Mound during the regular walk
k.. Bushtit -; one flock of 20-25
l.. Kinglets -; many seen in mixed flocks, GCKI and RCKI both plentiful and giving us excellent eye-level views
m.. Lincoln's Sparrow -; one seen briefly below Viewing Mound
n.. SWAMP SPARROW -; one gave fabulous looks below Viewing Mound
o.. Western Meadowlark - 10+ near Viewing Mound
Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, mergansers, Ring-billed Gull (probable, but fog-obscured), Pine Siskin.

This winter is unusual. Duck numbers, both of species and of individuals, are remarkably low. Diving ducks have been almost completely absent. Even adding in a late scan of the whole north end of the lake today, I could only find about 2 dozen BUFFLEHEAD and 2 COMMON GOLDENEYE. We've had no more than 4 RING-NECKED DUCKS on any day yet, no Scaup at all, and only 1-2 mergansers at most each week. Only twice have we had a Hooded Merganser since the end of August.

Besides Scaup, we've also had no Swans, Greater White-fronted Geeese, Ruddy Duck, large gulls besides GWGU, no Kestrel, Raven, Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, Red Crossbill, or Pine Siskin. And we've only had Northern Shoveler once (mid-October), one Short-eared Owl (mid October), one Northern Saw-whet Owl (mid-October), one flock of Evening Grosbeak (late September), one White-throated Sparrow (in early October), and one Townsend's Warbler (early November).

An ebird report from Hank Heiberg includes photos of a BRANT with Cackling Geese, and a PALM WARBLER in the Pea Patch. The later is a new bird for Marymoor Park!!! We were not able to find either species today.

For today, we ended up with 57 species.

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


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