[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-07-27

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - With sunny skies, temps in the high '60's, and not a breath of wind, it was a lazy day at Marymoor today.  Many, many juvenile birds along with their shabbily-dressed parents made for a bit of head-scratching now and then about the identity of silent half-hidden birds.  But a fine day to be out.

Highlights:
    Wood Duck - Female with six tiny ducklings
    Great Blue Heron - nesting 99% completed.  Down to only a dozen or two birds noted
    Green Heron - One below the weir, one from the Lake Platform
    Osprey - Bringing fish to the nests
    Bushtit - One  >>>ERROR: Invalid count for this species<<<  No, really, a lone bird.  Didn't even hear others nearby
    Marsh Wren - Adult feeding juvenile, seen from early part of the boardwalk
    Swainson's Thrush - Not sure I ever heard a song, but quite a bit of "Wheet" calls, and several views
    Purple Finch - Probably a High Count (20-25), mostly juveniles
    Black-throated Gray Warbler - Probably at least two along west edge of Dog Meadow
    Wilson's Warbler - One cagy bird in the SW corner of the East Meadow.  First since May

A late scan of the lake turned up a couple of surprises while I was checking the identity of a couple of gulls (Glaucous-winged, and a hybrid).  First, a MERLIN darted towards the Lake Platform only to be driven off by a dozen or so IRATE PURPLE MARTINS.  Then, I had a fly-by of four small, brownish shorebirds.  My guess is LEAST SANDPIPER, which is also the most seasonably reasonable brownish shorebird.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, Kazuto Shibata had EASTERN KINGBIRD at the park, with two their yesterday.

I went over in the late afternoon yesterday, found no kingbirds, but did find a tight flock of about 50 BARN SWALLOWS, many of them juveniles.  Mixed in were at least 1-2 each of TREE SWALLOW, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, >>>BANK SWALLOW<<<, and CLIFF SWALLOW.  Both Rough-winged and Bank were First of Year (FOY) for me at the park.
    
Misses today included Pied-billed Grebe (though I had 2-3 yesterday), Vaux's Swift, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Brown-headed Cowbird.

For the day, 57 species, including shorebird sp. and black-wingtipped gull sp.

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