The promised warming this day waited until late morning. As a result there was quite a chill from pre-dawn on. Nevertheless, the calm skies with lots of sun had the birds vocal from very early, only to be drowned out in many areas of the park by the chorus of frogs. In the wetlands, it was impossible to have a conversation they were so loud. Nothing too out of the ordinary in avian terms but definitely some signs of changes are occurring. One of the major changes continues to be the unrelenting modifications to the wetland pond shorelines by the family of resident beavers, as they remove trees that should never have been planted so close to the shoreline in the first place.
Northern Shoveler - half dozen, the males looking quite dapper, and the pairs were doing their twirling swim in the ponds
Scaup - a handful of each species, the white flanks of the males shining in the morning sun
Common Goldeneye - several dozen, almost all performing their head-snapping courting rituals
Western Grebe - the huge flock of ~300 birds continues mid-lake, toward Kirkland
Anna's Hummingbird - several females nest-building or already sitting on eggs
Killdeer - many; some were laying flat on the warm rocks on the north shore; the berm to the east of the Children's parking area (E5) has been completely covered by bark chips; this has been a traditional nest area for Killdeer-;we'll have to see how they adjust to the new substrate
Cooper's Hawk - adding twigs to last year's nest on Promontory Point
Red-tailed Hawk - not seen every week, a pair were riding a thermal near the park entrance
Barn Owl - watched the nest box atop the community center building for a while, pre-dawn, when one of the pair flew out, heading north; could still see the other in the box after that; on eggs now?
Pileated Woodpecker - one calling from Promontory Point; the day before, one was seen acting very irritated by the Cooper's Hawk nest-building activities, constantly calling/scolding and flying from perch to perch in a trajectory circumscribing the nest tree, though never getting close enough to provoke an altercation
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - lots and lots!, almost all of them singing, many flaring their red crowns; how can you not be enthralled by their happy song
American Goldfinch - many dozen; getting close to full breeding plumage; almost as vocal as the frogs!
Savannah Sparrow - first of Spring, with a small group of GC Sparrows
Yellow-rumped Warbler - many Audubon's, a few Myrtle; numbers are increasing
For the day, 54 species.
Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53866082 <https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53866082>
Scott Ramos
Seattle
Magnuson Park Geography: http://tinyurl.com/y4krs3xv <http://tinyurl.com/y4krs3xv>

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