[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-09-21

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - Our fall equinox walk, in honor of Brian Bell, was even foggier than last week.  It was almost torture walking the loop, hearing tiny untraceable calls from birds and seeing very little.  We weren't even very successful at birding by ear.  And when birds actually *were* seen, it was often by only one or two people.  The fog didn't lift until we were almost all the way around to the East Meadow.  Birding got quite a bit better after that.

Highlights:
    CACKLING GOOSE - First of Fall (FOF), one in a flock of Canadas on the grass fields.  On the early side
    Vaux's Swift - Still one; should be gone soon
    Wilson's Snipe - One or two flying the East Meadow during the main walk (not pre-dawn)
    Osprey - Still one young bird on one of the nests!
    Cooper's Hawk - Two or more birds, several sightings, including a juvenile doing stupid juvenile things (Sure, Mallard and Kingfisher are prey, right???)
    Merlin - One around the mansion
    Peregrine Falcon - One flew past the west end of the Pea Patch.  First of Year (FOY)
    Willow Flycatcher - One in the willows between the 1st and 2nd Dog Beaches.  Only 3 later fall sightings ever
    Swainson's Thrush - One seen, a few more heard pre-dawn, but they should be replaced by Hermit Thrush soon
    CHIPPING SPARROW - Juvenile in Pea Patch, identified in the field as Brewer's, but photos showed a rather plain-faced Chipping, still showing a lot of juvenal plumage (FOF)
    Golden-crowned Sparrow - Several spread around, (FOF)
    Savannah Sparrow - All over the trails in the Dog Area, as if they couldn't find the East Meadow in the fog
    Orange-crowned Warbler - Near East Footbridge - one of the first birds we saw when the fog lifted
    Yellow-rumped Warbler - A half-dozen at the Rowing Club (FOF)
    Townsend's Warbler - Carl saw one near the first Dog Beach
    Black-throated Gray Warbler - Scott Ramos saw one at the Rowing Club, with the Yellow-rumps
    Western Tanager - One or two at the Rowing Club
 
Mason had a BLACK BEAR on the Interpretive Trail pre-dawn!  Only the 3rd record I know of for the park!    But one of the other two sightings was from September 30, 2015, so only a week later.  Fall movement of bears???

Misses today included Hooded Merganser, American Coot, Green Heron, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Barn Swallow (did have Swallow sp., but Mason felt they didn't look like Barns), Bushtit, Brown Creeper, Marsh Wren, European Starling, and Fox Sparrow

Despite the very long list of misses, we still managed 51 species (though that includes gull sp. and swallow sp.)

We had a very nice gathering in honor of Brian after the survey.  We will miss him!

= Michael Hobbs
= Birding at Marymoor Park
= BirdMarymoor at gmail.com