Subject: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2021-05-06
Date: Thu May 6 14:43:21 PDT 2021
From: birdmarymoor at gmail.com - birdmarymoor at gmail.com

Tweets -; Today is the last day of Week 18*, the week of the year with the greatest diversity of birds at Marymoor over the years (at least 148 species!), so we were expecting a good day today. Despite the unsettled weather (variable winds, occasional drizzle-squalls, one bout of hail), things really weren't too bad. The birds did seem to be slow in getting active today, but things definitely picked up. Quite a day. We again split into two groups, traveling in opposite directions.

Highlights:
a.. CINNAMON TEAL -; Male in slough, and seen at the lake. This, and next week, are the best weeks of the year for this species at Marymoor
b.. Northern Shoveler -; about 2 dozen in a mixed flock of ducks far out on the lake
c.. Green-winged Teal -; getting late for them, but still quite a few
d.. Common Goldeneye -; our group had a flyby bird -; 2nd latest ever spring sighting
e.. MOURNING DOVE -; Jordan's group had four; my group had only one, First of Year (FOY)
f.. Great Horned Owl -; Matt saw one predawn (FOY)
g.. Merlin -; both groups saw one
h.. WESTERN KINGBIRD -; Jordan's group saw two over near the Model Airplane Field
i.. SWAINSON'S THRUSH -; Matt heard them doing two different calls, predawn (FOY)
j.. Western Meadowlark -; my group had one north of Fields 7-8-9
k.. BULLOCK'S ORIOLE -; at least 3, including both males and a female (FOY)
l.. NASHVILLE WARBLER -; Jordan's team saw one near the Dog Area portapotties (FOY)
m.. Western Tanager -; pretty good showing for both groups
n.. BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK -; several singing males (FOY)
Combined, we had a SEVEN WARBLER DAY, with Orange-crowned, Nashville, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow, Yellow-rumped (both Myrtle and Audubon's), Black-throated Gray, and Wilson's Warblers.


>From the Lake Platform, we saw a large, distant, mixed flock of ducks on the lake. We were able to pick out quite a few male NORTHERN SHOVELER, but I was eager to see if I could scope this flock after the walk. It was a bit of a shocker. The flock totaled about 72 birds:

a.. Northern Shoveler ~ 25
b.. Gadwall ~ 12
c.. EURASIAN WIGEON -; 1 male, ONLY OUR 2nd EVER AT MARYMOOR (FOY)
d.. American Wigeon ~ 12
e.. Green-winged Teal ~ 10
f.. LESSER SCAUP ~ 12 -; Latest spring sighting ever
I also had two HORNED GREBE, latest spring sighting ever, and two GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS.

Tuesday, just 2 days ago, I went to Marymoor for 4 hours starting at 9 a.m., and found NINE SPECIES WE DIDN'T SEE TODAY!
a.. Rock Pigeon -; two
b.. Vaux's Swift -; about 10
c.. Virginia Rail -; adult and a tiny black fluff ball baby along the boardwalk
d.. American Coot -; just one; last until fall?
e.. LEAST SANDPIPER -; two below the weir
f.. Wilson's Snipe -; one below the weir; last until fall?
g.. GREATER YELLOWLEGS -; one below the weir
h.. COMMON LOON -; one on the lake
i.. Lincoln's Sparrow -; two
Misses today, besides Rock Pigeon, Vaux's Swift and Lincoln's Sparrow, were Hooded Merganser, Pied-billed Grebe, Green Heron, Belted Kingfisher, and Cliff Swallow.

Today, Jordan's team had 58 species. Mine had 69. Adding in the predawn birds and the birds I found on the late scan of the lake, and we had a COMBINED 81 SPECIES for the day!

Dan Bormann photographed a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD yesterday, and I had the nine additional species on Tuesday. eBird shows a few more sightings, so definitely more than 90 species at Marymoor THIS WEEK.

With seven new species today, our year list is at 130, I believe.

* New Years Day is Day 1 of Week 1 in my reckoning. Calendar weeks aren't comparable year-to-year, since if the year starts on Saturday, Week 1 has just one day. 2021 started on a Friday, so we're just finishing Week 18 today.

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

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