Tweets -; Once again the weather forecasters failed us. The predicted daily deluge failed to deliver. We had a pretty nice morning with only a few minutes of mizzle; the rest of the morning was dry and quite pleasant. Not that it wasn't wet in the park, though. Since last week the lake level is up about a foot-and-a-half, and the the boardwalk and adjacent trail were under a few inches of water (6" or so at the deepest). With American Robins singing their hearts out (ouch), it really starts to feel like spring.

Highlights:
a.. Horned Grebe -; one visible from the Lake Platform, though distant
b.. Virginia Rail -; an absolute chorus from east of the East Meadow before dawn
c.. California Gull -; two adults on the grass fields -; First of Year (FOY)
d.. HERRING GULL -; nice adult on grass fields -; (FOY)
e.. Great Blue Heron -; I counted at least 91 herons in the heronry. Many sticks were being brought in. A least one heron was *sitting* on a nest, not just standing
f.. Barn Owl -; one working the East Meadow and around to the model airplane field, 6:00-6:15 a.m.
g.. BARRED OWL -; Matt heard one SW of the mansion very early (FOY)
h.. Pileated Woodpecker -; one near the heronry
i.. Merlin -; one landed NE of the Pea Patch (FOY)
j.. White-throated Sparrow -; Brian had one at the Pea Patch
k.. Western Meadowlark -; at least one singing from the model airplane field
l.. Yellow-rumped Warbler -; three sightings, at least 2 birds (amazingly FOS)
Still no actual spring arrivals -; maybe next week.

Predawn birds were hard to hear over the PACIFIC TREE FROGS in full chorus.

Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Short-billed and Ring-billed Gulls, Cooper's Hawk, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Northern Shrike, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin

Despite that long list of "misses" (birds seen at least 50% of previous years), we still managed 57 species. The survey is at 78 species for the year.

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