Tweets -; We had a nice day at the park today (a day early this week due to Thanksgiving). Overcast, but we had only a little mist for precipitation, and temps were in the mid-40's with little wind. There were even moments of blue sky. For COVID distancing, we split into two groups of five. It was fairly quiet, but we found quite a few species in aggregate.

Highlights:
a.. Greater White-fronted Goose -; one with Canadas. Seen by Jordan's group
b.. Wood Duck -; lone male in slough
c.. Northern Shoveler -; lone female in slough
d.. American Wigeon -; lone female in slough
e.. EARED GREBE -; on lake, distantly visible from the Lake Platform. Natalee got a photo that (when zoomed) confirmed the ID
f.. Killdeer -; at least 55!
g.. Mew Gull -; minimum of 50, often in swirls overhead
h.. Gulls -; there were ~150 gulls total, seen in the air at once. Many were GWGU and hybrids, but a few Ring-billed and California too
i.. SHORT-EARED OWL -; East Meadow, giving us pretty good looks around 7:00 a.m.
j.. Northern Flicker -; two in the East Meadow were Yellow-shafted, intergrade, or one of each
k.. Pileated Woodpecker -; one
l.. Northern Shrike -; our group saw one twice, first heading from east of the Dog Meadow SW across the slough, then later at the East Meadow. Eluded the other group
m.. Golden-crowned Kinglet -; continue to be extraordinarily numerous and widespread, as we have been seeing for weeks
n.. American Robin -; even more ubiquitous than usual
o.. American Goldfinch - ~30 at Viewing Mound -; many more than usual for Marymoor
p.. Western Meadowlark -; one, seen by Jordan's group
After the walk, Brian and I scoped the lake again. In the NE corner, we added CANVASBACK, RING-NECKED DUCK, Scaup sp., and COMMON LOON. I drove through the park on my way out, getting my own sighting of the Greater White-fronted Goose, and adding RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS (two near the new osprey tower), and ROCK PIGEON. Mason also did extra birding at the end, and added COMMON MERGANSER.

The only species that has previously been reported in at least half of prior years that was not recorded today (my definition of "Misses") was Red-winged Blackbird. And I *might* have heard one of those.

So my group had 55 species, Jordan's group had 52. Late additions tacked on six more, for a day's combined total of 66 species. Not bad for late November.

Happy (socially distanced) Thanksgiving, everyone

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