[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-08-31

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - It was a day of surprises and surprise misses today.  Definitely interesting!  Threatened showers failed to appear, leaving us with a nice day: temps in the 60's, partial overcast.

Highlights:
    BLUE-WINGED TEAL - Two probable juveniles in slough; had to watch for a long time to see wing pattern for ID
    Wilson's Snipe - One in slough below weir.  Our 4th-earliest fall sighting
    Cooper's Hawk - Two juveniles, seen together at Pea Patch
    BARN OWL - Two together in East Meadow, 6 a.m.  First confirmed sighting for the survey in 2023
    FIVE Woodpecker Day - Pileated heard-only, and the sapsuckers were far across the slough
    EASTERN KINGBIRD - Extremely distant sighting confirmed by photo (thanks, Tony)
    Purple Martin - Still active at snags across the slough from Big Cottonwood Forest
    FIVE Warbler Day - One Orange-crowned, one male Yellow, two Black-throated Gray, one Wilson's (heard-only but singing repeatedly), and many Common Yellowthroat
    Western Tanager - Best guess is we had 7-10
    Black-headed Grosbeak - Several

Today's best mixed flock was at the first dog swim beach.  Like last week, there were many WESTERN TANAGER and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS in the flock.

This was just our 6th fall sighting of BLUE-WINGED TEAL, with sightings scattered through August-September.  

Our 4th-earliest sighing for WILSON'S SNIPE.  Often, we don't get a fall sighting before October.

While these were the first confirmed BARN OWL for the year for the survey, Tony did have a mystery owl two weeks ago that may well have been a Barn.

The EASTERN KINGBIRD was ridiculously far away - maybe 300 yards or more!.  Looking across the slough, I saw a bird flying away.  At first I thought it was a Tree Swallow, but then it landed in a tree that must have been all the way over by West Lake Sammamish Parkway.  It was shorter-winged and longer-tailed than a swallow.   It was strikingly dark backed and white underneath from chin to vent.  When it flew once, I was pretty sure I saw the white tip to the tail.  In side view, the chin area gleamed white.  While I don't think Tony ever got a look at the bird (it was FAR away), he took some photos pointing in the right direction and he was able to zoom in and find the bird.  John Tubbs reported an Eastern Kingbird at Marymoor on 26-Aug-2008, but this is a rare species at Marymoor for this time of year.

Misses today were also notable:  Hooded Merganser, Red-tailed Hawk, Willow Flycatcher (though we did have about 3 flycatcher sp.), Warbling Vireo, Violet-green Swallow, Bushtit, Marsh Wren, and Lincoln's Sparrow.  With exception of the last, all of these are both expected this week of the year AND have been reliable in the last several weeks this year.

Despite those misses, we had 56 species plus the probable Willow Flycatcher. 

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