[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2024-06-27

[Michael Hobbs via Tweeters]

Tweets - We are officially in The Summer Doldrums.  Combine that with the
worst weather of the week, and it's no surprise we didn't see much today.
It was dark all morning, with mist that progressed through mizzle, drizzle,
light rain, and finally to just plain rain, before sequentially letting up.

Highlights:
     Canada Goose - Pair with four still small goslings at the weir
     Caspian Tern - NINE at the lake
     Northern Rough-winged Swallow - One from the Rowing Club dock, our
first since early April
     Yellow-breasted Chat - Heard pre-dawn, south end of the East Meadow;
third straight Thursday for this pseudo-rarity

And that's about it for highlights.

The chat was silent and unseen when we came through the East Meadow in the
rain.

When I say The Summer Doldrums, I refer to the seven weeks in a row
(starting this week) where we've had fewer than 110 species for each of
those weeks, cumulatively over the years of the survey.  The third week in
July (Week 29) is the low point, with only 99 species.  Not only do we have
few species during each of those seven weeks, we mostly just see the same
50-60 species week after week.

We *can *get a smattering of shorebirds in July and early August, and a few
unexpected flycatchers, plus we get to see a lot of baby and "teenage"
birds doing cute and/or goofy things, but surprises are scarce and rarities
are rare.

The other time we have fewer than 110 cumulative species each week is
December through the middle of March, but none of those weeks are as low as
Week 29.  The highest cumulative total for any week is 153 species reported
during the first week of May (Week 18).

Misses today, in the rain, included Hooded and Common Merganser,
Pied-billed Grebe, Green Heron, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Cliff Swallow,
Bullock's Oriole, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

For the day, just 52 species, with nothing new for the year.

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