Tweets -; Despite a perfect day for weather, it seemed SO quiet out there. Except when I look at the bird list things look pretty good. Huh??? Definitely very few neo-tropical migrants, and we were also lacking in really good looks at many of the birds. Nothing extraordinarily rare today, but some surprises.

Highlights:
a.. Northern Shoveler -; one flyby over the East Meadow
b.. Northern Pintail -; flyby of two as we started the main survey
c.. Eurasian Collared-Dove -; One seen well. 99% sure there was a second bird too, flying further away from us
d.. Mourning Dove -; one with the well-seen Collared-Dove, at the Compost Piles
e.. Wilson's Snipe -; Mark & Lee reported one on the grass soccer fields near Killdeer -; First of Fall (FOF)
f.. Caspian Tern -; one flew downstream over the slough. This is our 2nd latest Fall sighting ever
g.. Pileated Woodpecker -; heard several times, seen once flying distantly
h.. Merlin -; seen twice about 6:45, SW of the mansion
i.. Pacific-slope Flycatcher -; one at the SW end of the East Meadow was our only flycatcher
j.. Warbling Vireo -; maybe 3-4
k.. Barn Swallow? -; three dark swallows over the lake were probably this species. Our only swallows
l.. Orange-crowned Warbler -; about 3, all near the East Meadow
m.. Black-throated Gray Warbler -; only one
A late scan of the lake confirmed two BONAPARTE'S GULLS that had been very distantly visible earlier from the Lake Platform. First of Year, and our earliest Fall sighting ever. I was also able to identify most of the other gulls out there as CALIFORNIAs. A WESTERN GREBE was FOF and a bit of a surprise -; this was the 3rd earliest Fall sighting for this species.

It was great seeing a EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE flying together *with* a MOURNING DOVE. They landed together in one of the trees north of the Compost Piles. Matt had a flyby BAND-TAILED PIGEON, and we later had a ROCK PIGEON near Hwy 520, for a four species day of the Columbidae family.

Misses today included Hooded Merganser, Vaux's Swift, Green Heron, Willow Flycatcher, Bushtit, Yellow Warbler, Western Tanager, and Black-headed Grosbeak. We also had no Western Wood-Pewee nor Violet-green Swallow but those species don't make the cut for being called "misses", narrowly shy of the cuttoff of 50% of previous surveys during Week 36, but their absence added to the feeling that there were very few neo-tropical migrants.

For the day, 62 species in total, though there were many species seen/heard by only a small number of participants.

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