Tweets -; The weather forecast looked really good today, and it mostly was fine, though we did have about an hour of mist an drizzle. Nothing too bad. It was super-birdy today, especially full of woodpeckers. Cold to start (33 degrees), but it was mostly not too bad, warming up by the end.

Highlights:
a.. SWANS -; flock of 22 birds flying silently to the NE; from date and location, probably Trumpeters
b.. Rufous Hummingbird -; several males seen. First of Year for the survey, but I had them at Marymoor since Sat., 3/7
c.. Cooper's Hawk -; I saw one cross the river near the start of the boardwalk
d.. Barn Owl -; at least 1 seen from Viewing Mound pre-dawn. Later, had an owl that might have been a Short-eared
e.. Western Screech-Owl -; Matt & I saw one around 6 a.m. along the trail to the east end of the boardwalk, in the forest
f.. Great Horned Owl -; Matt heard one from the windmill, calling from somewhere up the ravine west of the park, just after 5 a.m.
g.. Five woodpecker day -; Hairy Woodpeckers seen copulating
h.. FALCON -; probably Peregrine, but seen flying with prey away to the NE -; First falcon of the year
i.. Swallows -; at least 50, with both Tree and Violet-green, but unsure of ratio
j.. HERMIT THRUSH -; one from footbridge just south of last Dog Swim Beach
k.. Purple Finch -; gorgeous male singing full songs next to the Rowing Club dock
l.. First 3-Finch day of 2020, with House Finch, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin
m.. Western Meadowlark -; Four north of Fields 7-8-9
Even using today's date, 3/12, this is still historically at the early side for RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. They arrived this year, however, at least as early as 3/7 (I had 3 different males that day). Only 2014, 2015, and 2016 had earlier reports of Rufous at Marymoor.

Not only did we have all five regular WOODPECKER species, we had multiple birds of each species. Pairs of both Pileated and Hairy, many Northern Flickers and Downy Woodpeckers, and somewhere between 3 and 7 Red-breasted Sapsuckers (I've counted it as 5). So probably more than 20 woodpecker individuals. Sapsucker, Downy, and probably Flicker were drumming.

Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Northern Shrike (but I had it Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday), Belted Kingfisher, Marsh Wren, and American Goldfinch.

For the day, 63 species, counting the swans and falcon.

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