[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-06-29

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - The weather was glorious this morning.  A perfect day.  This being late June, we didn't have many surprises, but our views of birds more than made up for it.  There was only ONE SPECIES today that was HEARD-ONLY, a huge change from a few weeks ago.

Highlights:
    Wood Duck - Female with a pretty new clutch of ducklings
    BLUE-WINGED TEAL - Single male seen twice, or two birds.  He/they appeared to be heading into eclipse plumage, but the white facial crescent was still quite obvious
    Gadwall - Female with a clutch of seven small ducklings, our first young Gadwall of the year
    Caspian Tern - Three flew down the slough around 6 a.m.
    Great Blue Heron - Many have fledged and were feeding along the slough.  Many are still on nests
    Red-tailed Hawk - Baby was wailing from low in a fir across from the Rowing Club parking lot
    Five Woodpecker Day - All species seen, including juvenile Downys and a family of Sapsuckers
    Willow Flycatcher - Pretty ubiquitous
    Warbling Vireo - Our one Heard-Only species.  1-2 singing at Rowing Club near the dock
    Purple Martin - Appear to have finished at the gourds at the Lake Platform, but appear to be still using nests in snags on the west side of the slough
    Swainson's Thrush - So many LOOKS that we became bored with seeing them.  Really.  Not tired of the wonderful songs though
    
Unsurprisingly, nothing new for the year.

Misses today included Rock Pigeon (though I saw two last evening), Green Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Barn Swallow (seen last evening), Cliff Swallow, Bullock's Oriole (seen last evening) and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

For the day, 57 species, with three more seen yesterday evening.

For the next two Thursdays there will be a greatly diminished crew for the surveys, as three of us are going to Ecuador and Matt is still out.  These are The Doldrums when we pretty well know what species will be present.  Makes it easier to skip Marymoor.  But surprises are always possible.

= Michael