Tweets -; A gorgeous day at Marymoor this morning; not a cloud in the sky, just a few puffs of wind, and while the morning started at just 37 degrees at 6:30, temps rose to 62 degrees before we were done. Mt. Rainier stood shining to the south. Jupiter was a bright orb to the east before sunrise. It was good. Though this will sound rather strange given the list of species, it wasn't really that birdy today. There were quite a few one-offs, and the skies were often empty.

We did, again, split into two groups, with Jordan leading the second reverse-direction group.

Highlights:
a.. Cackling Goose -; probably at least 2000 streamed by heading NW around 6:00 a.m.
b.. American Wigeon -; small flock overhead, with more at the lake. Uncommon at this time of year at Marymoor
c.. Band-tailed Pigeon -; just one for my group, but our best look of the year so far
d.. Great Blue Heron -; heronry is expanding into additional nearby trees
e.. Cooper's Hawk -; my group had a brief look of one at the south end of the Dog Meadow. First in a month
f.. PURPLE MARTIN -; probably at least 6, with some in snags south of the Rowing Club, more at the Lake Platform gourds. First of Year (FOY)
g.. American Pipit -; my group had three, Fields 7-8-9
h.. RED CROSSBILL -; Jordan's group had 20 near the mansion; my group only heard them (FOY)
i.. Lincoln's Sparrow -; my group had two separate sightings of single birds. Only our 3rd record for the year
j.. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW -; Jordan's group had one at the south end of the Dog Meadow. 5th latest spring sighting ever
k.. BREWER'S BLACKBIRD -; at least 21 on the grass soccer fields next to where we park. This is a new High Count for the park. FOY for us.
l.. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER -; one SW of the windmill, another heard near the park entrance. FOY, and 3rd earliest spring sighting ever
In a late scan of the lake, I found a pair of NORTHERN SHOVELER (FOY)

This was our 3rd earliest sighting for PURPLE MARTIN.

Based on my experience at Discovery Park on Tuesday, I had anticipated we'd have many Orange-crowned Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. But we completely dipped on Orange-crowns, and had just a single RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. I had found two Black-throated Gray Warblers at Disco on Tuesday, and was very happy to have a repeat of that today at Marymoor.

Big misses today were limited to just Rock Pigeon and Orange-crowned Warbler, as we managed 71 species between the two groups!

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