[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2025-04-24

[Michael Hobbs via Tweeters]

Tweets - Gorgeous day (you should have seen the crescent moon and Venus to
the east at 5:30 a.m.!).  Sunny, cool to start but warming, no wind.  The
dawn chorus was loud but disappointingly free of any new voices for the
spring.  And that's pretty much what we found all morning; almost zero new
arrivals.  This was particularly disappointing since several species that
we have not yet had on the survey were reported on eBird during the week.
This perhaps points out that during migration, birds pass through as much
as they arrive.

Highlights:
     Green Heron - Fairly high-flying bird heading south past the
windmill.  These former breeders at Marymoor have almost disappeared since
the Great Blue Herons build their heronry
     Five woodpecker day - though Hairy and Pileated were heard-only
     Northern Rough-winged Swallow - Two in the East Meadow, First of Year
(FOY) for the survey
     White-crowned Sparrow - Still at least one gambelii subspecies song
heard, though most were the breeding pugetensis type
     Western Meadowlark - One in the East Meadow.  These turn up
surprisingly late during spring sometimes
     Western Tanager - Male, silent, in the riparian strip west of the Dog
Meadow (FOY)

The WESTERN TANAGER was a real surprise since this is the earliest ever for
the Marymoor Survey, and the 2nd earliest for the park reported on eBird.
Our previous earliest sighting was on 26-Apr-2018.  On eBird, there is a
report from Sarah Pedan, 20-Apr-17.  Most years they have not appeared
until May.

We had a better day for mammals, with coyote and deer seen along with the
more usual beaver, bunny, and squirrel.

Misses today included Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Vaux's Swift, American
Coot, Wilson's Snipe, Glaucous-winged Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, American
Barn Owl, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Hermit Thrush, and Lincoln's Sparrow.

Despite that long list of misses and our general disappointment in the
morning, we had 58 species.  Adding NRWS and WETA puts the survey at 96
species for 2025.

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