[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-05-04

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - Typically, the first week in May is the peak for diversity at Marymoor, leading to our largest list of the year.  But this is not a normal year.  It was rather cold this morning, with a fairly dark overcast for most of it, and rain seemed to be threatening (though the night's rain ended before 5 a.m.).  It was NOT very birdy, and while we had a good number of First of Spring birds (FOS), we had a very large list of Misses.  Numbers seemed very low too, for the most part.

Highlights:
    Canada Goose - Still nesting on both Osprey platforms, as well as on the new (but not used) Bald Eagle nest visible from the Lake Platform
    Ring-necked Duck - Two males in the slough; I'm surprised they are still here
    Mourning Dove - One flew by where we park (FOS) just before we headed to the Rowing Club
    Vaux's Swift - 2-4 over the slough below the weir after we walked the main loop (FOS)
    Least (???) Sandpiper - Two flew above tree-height downslough.  Looked good for Least, but can't say for sure
    Cooper's Hawk - One, our first in more than two months
    Warbling Vireo - Several singing, but our only looks were at the Rowing Club (FOS)
    Swainson's Thrush - Heard calling pre-dawn, but none singing and none seen.  Still early for them.
    CHIPPING SPARROW - One from the Viewing Mound in the area just cleared of blackberries (FOS)
    Bullock's Oriole - First-year male(s?) along the slough.  Several sightings.  Singing
    Yellow Warbler - Several singing males (FOS), some even seen well (a quality not present in quite a few species today)
    Black-headed Grosbeak - 2-3 males, and maybe heard some singing (FOS)

A late scan of the lake revealed two RED-NECKED GREBE (FOS), about where we'd had two mystery birds from the lake platform, and a fairly large flock of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, which may have been one of the two mystery flocks of ducks seen flying lakeward earlier.  
    
Misses included Hooded Merganser, Pied-billed Grebe, Rock Pigeon, Killdeer, Glaucous-winged Gull, Green Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher Cliff Swallow, Brown Creeper (might have heard), Pine Siskin, Lincoln's Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler (might have glimpsed one), Wilson's Warbler (!), and Western Tanager.  All of those species have been present in half or more of previous years for this week.  That's a long list of Misses!

Despite 7 new species for the year, we managed just 59 species for the day, plus the Sandpiper sp.  I'm hoping next week will bring some flycatchers, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Nashville and Black-throated Gray Warblers, and Western Tanager...

= Michael Hobbs