Tweets - For perhaps the third week in a row, we were out on the hottest
day of the week. This does not help the birding. Pre-dawn was absolutely
gorgeous with the thinnest sliver of a crescent moon and Venus rising in
the East, and Jupiter setting in the west. There was a bit of ground fog
around sunrise. Otherwise, we were in the sun all morning. Temps went
from 63 to 78 degrees! There were a fair number of birds about, but it was
especially challenging birding as the birds were quiet and skulking,
juvenile calls are hard to identify, and almost all of the birds are
looking scruffy these days. But I think we managed to track down at least
most of what was around.

Highlights:

- Gadwall - Female with two tweenaged ducklings. Seems a bit late for
the youngsters
- Greater Yellowlegs - One heard calling in flight
- Cooper's Hawk - Three sightings, hard to know if that's 1, 2, or 3
birds, but likely just 1
- Western Screech-Owl - Matt heard one pre-dawn
- Five Woodpecker Day - Pileated was heard-only, but heard several times
- Warbling Vireo - Probably about 4 total
- Orange-crowned Warbler - One at Compost Piles
- Yellow Warbler - A few still around, with one still singing
- Black-throated Gray Warbler - One or more likely two in Dog Meadow
- Black-headed Grosbeak - Making Downy-like calls. One seen, several
more *might* have been heard earlier

All morning long, the trick was to be very careful to check EVERY bird in
mixed flocks of chickadees, yellowthroats, wrens, finches. The warblers
and vireos were hiding amongst them.

Misses today included Rock Pigeon (though there were a few pigeons today we
couldn't ID), Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Wilson's
Warbler.

A late scan of the lake confirmed the gull to be a CALIFORNIA GULL, and
added BARN SWALLOWS and a single CLIFF SWALLOW. Counting those, we had 60
species today.

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