This week, Week 26, is the heart of "The Doldrums", where just about every bird we see is a local breeder, and where we can predict with very high accuracy the exact list of species we'll see. Barely worth doing the walk, one might say. Week 26, at just a cumulative 94 species, has the worst diversity of any week of the year. Or *had* the worst. Today was a special exception. The weather was definitely not propitious, with dark gray clouds and several brief morning showers. So much for predictions. Our best bird was an AMERICAN REDSTART, but that was by no means the only unusual sighting.

Highlights:
a.. BLACK SWIFT -; four seen over boardwalk
b.. Spotted Sandpiper -; one on the weir
c.. Great Blue Herons -; many young still on the nest, but at least a dozen fledged birds flying about the park
d.. Barn Owl -; none seen today, but Matt again heard young in the windmill
e.. Western Screech-Owl -; Matt photographed a juvenile near east end of the boardwalk
f.. Red-breasted Sapsucker -; several sightings, including two juveniles
g.. WESTERN KINGBIRD -; one in East Meadow -; new for Week 26
h.. RED-EYED VIREO -; one singing and seen in flight near the heronry. First June/July sighting since 2013
i.. EVENING GROSBEAK -; flyover flock of five -; new for Week 26
j.. Bullock's Oriole -; probably 3+ birds, poorly seen
k.. Orange-crowned Warbler -; never common at Marymoor this time of year, but today we heard 2-3 singing
l.. AMERICAN REDSTART -; bright adult male seen singing just south of the Dog Area along the slough trail! Our only previous sighting of this species was two birds on August 22, 2002. Obviously also new for Week 26
m.. Western Tanager -; never common at Marymoor this time of year; two at the Rowing Club
n.. MANY MANY JUVENILE BIRDS OF MANY MANY SPECIES
Misses today included Canada Goose, Pied-billed Grebe, Rock Pigeon, Green Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Cliff Swallow, and Lazuli Bunting. For the day, 61 species.

Week 26 picked up three species (WEKI, EVGR, AMRE) bringing it to 97 species, one more than Week 4. And the AMERICAN REDSTART was a year bird. A pretty special day.

== Michael Hobbs
== www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== BirdMarymoor at frontier.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20190627/f8097860/attachment.html>