A frosty Halloween morning today. Once the sun came up, very thin overcast
was sufficient to keep things cold for a long time. I'm *still* cold. It
was a good morning for birds, though, and that made up for it.

Biggest highlight came before the official start of the walk. For several
minutes, just as the dawn brightened, we were treated to the sight of two
SHORT-EARED OWLS hunting the East Meadow. Before it was bright enough to
see the wing markings, the different flight style made me pretty sure it
wasn't Barn Owls. The erratic nature of their flight made it very hard to
track them in the dimness. But before they disappeared, the morning had
gotten bright enough to see both of them well.

Other highlights:

- Greater White-fronted Goose - four with mixed Cackling/Canada flocks
- Hooded Merganser - nine at the Rowing Club pond
- Green Heron - one at Rowing Club pond
- Northern Harrier - juvenile flew past the Lake Platform
- Short-eared Owl - two; see above - First for 2019
- NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL - twice in the darkness, Matt had responses; the
first time was at the east end of the boardwalk - First of Fall
- Hairy Woodpecker - one distant bird
- Northern Shrike - two sightings, both fairly near the slough; 2nd
time, a shrike flew across the slough to the Rowing Club. Not their usual
haunt.
- Varied Thrush - a few poor sightings, but several birds around
- EVENING GROSBEAK - flyby of four birds
- Western Meadowlark - two north of fields 7-8-9
- Townsend's Warbler - one near park office

Misses today included Western Grebe, Pacific Wren, Cedar Waxwing, and
American Goldfinch. And we only had one unidentified gull with black wing
tips; all other gulls were Glaucous-winged and/or "Olympic" Gulls.

For the day, 60 species if you count that extra gull.

= Michael Hobbs
= www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
= birdmarymoor at gmail.com
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