Tweets -; A gorgeous day today, and some really good birding. This is still early March, so there weren't any new spring migrants yet, but there was plenty to see. The morning started out at 29 degrees, under clear skies, and warmed to 46. No wind, and good light most of the time too. We again split into two groups to keep the group size small for COVID; Jordan led the other group (THANK YOU).

Highlights:
a.. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE -; one adult, with Cacklers. Just our 6th March sighting out of 134 March surveys
b.. Cackling Goose -; over 1000 landed on the grass soccer fields. Probably close to another thousand flew SE
c.. Ten species of ducks
d.. Cooper's Hawk -; one seen flying west by my group. First in a month
e.. Belted Kingfisher -; both male and female seen; I think this is our first female of the year
f.. Five Woodpecker Day -; for both groups
g.. Merlin -; seen by both groups. My group saw it snag prey (a Tree Swallow, I think), in the Pea Patch soon after sunrise
h.. Northern Shrike -; seen by both groups. Near the Viewing Mound
i.. HUTTON'S VIREO -; one singing at the Rowing Club; I had one Tuesday for First of Year (FOY)
j.. Varied Thrush -; Jordan's group had one
k.. HOUSE SPARROW -; Jordan's group had a male in the east end of Snag Row, south of Field 7. This is the first sighting for the Marymoor Survey since 2017-04-10 ! So, of course, FOY
l.. White-throated Sparrow -; My group had one with White-crowned Sparrows at the north end of the Pet Memorial Garden
m.. Western Meadowlark -; Jordan's group had 4
n.. Townsend's Warbler -; Matt found a female near the stage for my group to enjoy. FOY
A late scan of the lake turned up four RING-NECKED DUCK and 2 HORNED GREBE. I was also able to confirm that the flock of hundreds of AMERICAN COOTS has disappeared/dispersed. We did see at least a couple of dozen Coots in the slough and along the edges of the lake, but no big flock. The big flock had been present for the whole winter, and was being preyed on heavily by the (at least) two pairs of BALD EAGLES. Perhaps the flock size dropped too low to make flocking a reasonable refuge from the eagles.

Misses today included Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

My group had 62 species, Jordan's had 58. Adding in birds from predawn, and the late scan of the lake, we had a whopping 68 species for the day combined. Three FOY brings us to 87 species for 2021.

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