Tweets -; We had great weather this morning, and plenty of birds. Days are getting shorter and wetter, so it was really nice to have such a pleasant day before winter sets in.

Highlights:
a.. Ring-necked Duck -; one in the slough. We had a sighting 8 weeks ago, but this feels like the real First of Fall
b.. Hooded Merganser -; One in a flyover flock; first in 5 weeks
c.. Common Merganser -; Four Commons made up the rest of that flyover flock
d.. Horned Grebe -; one in the slough gave us excellent looks; later we got to see it fly up the river to the lake
e.. Common Loon -; two in the fog from the Lake Platform; 99% sure that's what they were. First of Fall (FOF)
f.. Western Screech-Owl -; early birders heard one
g.. Great Horned Owl -; Matt saw a large owl, but couldn't be sure of ID (could have been a Barred, for instance). But a separate birder photographed one in the park today
h.. Five Woodpecker Day
i.. Cedar Waxwing -; good size flock in a tree as we approached the weir
j.. American Pipit -; 3 or so, in flyovers
k.. Pine Siskin -; I think 120 minimum; huge flock and later sightings of smaller flocks
l.. Savannah Sparrow -; still at least one in the East Meadow
m.. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW -; one bright bird in the Pea Patch
n.. Western Meadowlark -; East Meadow, grass soccer fields. At least 6
o.. ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER -; one in Pea Patch
While we were approaching the weir, we had great looks at several WILSON'S SNIPE, including some who were swimming in shallow water east of the main channel. Then, an adult COOPER'S HAWK came in and struck one of the snipe. I didn't see the Coop fly in, nor the strike (Jordan may have seen the whole thing). I only heard people shouting that there was a Cooper's Hawk *in the water*. Sure enough, the Coop stood there in water up to its belly. It was awkwardly standing on something, and would occasionally adjust its grip. A couple of American Crows were down there keeping a close eye on the hawk, and about 10 birders were staring too. The hawk stood there, in the water, for probably two minutes. After the crows left, the Coop hopped onto dry land, with a dead snipe clutched in its talons. A little later, the Coop took off with his prey and flew low out of sight. It had never even occurred to me that Snipe might be a target of a Cooper's Hawk.

Mark thought he had a distant CALIFORNIA SCRUB-JAY, which proved elusive if so.

For mammals, Matt saw deer near the windmill long before dawn. We had poor views of River Otter and American Beaver swimming the slough. And, of course, we had the usual E.G. Squirrels and E. Cottontails.

Misses today included Gadwall, Western Grebe, Ring-billed and California Gulls, Barn Owl, and Northern Shrike (13 of 26 previous years for this week).

For the day, we had at least 63 species.

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