Tweets -; A little early overcast cleared to hazy skies, especially to the east. A quiet day.

Highlights:
a.. NORTHERN SHOVELER -; one female-type at the weir. Our earliest fall sighting by 3 days (if you don't count a very out-of-season bird on 2017-07-25, photographed by Kazuto Shibata)
b.. Common Merganser -; seven at the weir, our first after a 6-week absence
c.. Vaux's Swift -; several sightings of multiple birds, after a summer of sparse sightings
d.. Western Screech-Owl -; heard predawn
e.. Great Horned Owl -; Matt saw one predawn along road
f.. Pacific-slope Flycatcher -; one south of the East Meadow -; First of Year for the survey !
g.. Purple Martin -; still several flying around calling
h.. Swallow spp. -; white-breasted swallows without noticeable saddlebags over Dog Meadow. Another bird at the lake. Thinking Tree and Northern Rough-winged respectively, but listing as spp.
i.. Cliff Swallow -; one near Viewing Mound
j.. Barn Swallow -; several
k.. Cedar Waxwing -; our most numerous passerine
l.. Yellow Warbler -; one heard singing, East Meadow. Our only warbler besides Common Yellowthroat
m.. Western Tanager -; three near weir, additional sightings near mansion. First sightings after 6-week absence
n.. Black-headed Grosbeak -; one below the weir in large dead tree

>From the Lake Platform we could see many distant swallows and about 10 scattered, distant gulls. But the haze prevented any IDs. A late scan of the lake confirmed California Gull and Glaucous-winged (or maybe Olympic) gulls, and several more that remained unidentified due to distance. I might have glimpsed a Caspian Tern, but couldn't verify.


Misses included Spotted Sandpiper, Green Heron, Cooper's Hawk, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown-headed Cowbird, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler.

Quite a few birds barely made it on to the list, based on being heard distantly, or being barely glimpsed. We did manage to identify 54 species.

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