[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2025-06-26

[Michael Hobbs via Tweeters]

Tweets - A morning with a solid overcast, but no precipitation and seldom
any wind.  Late June often starts the "doldrums" that usually continue
through July.  These are characterized by a paucity of surprises, coupled
with the tailing off of bird songs and the departure of some of our
breeding birds; it can sometimes get quite dull.  But apparently that
hasn't started yet.  Today had several unexpected species, and we still had
songs from pretty much all of the expected birds.

Highlights:
     BLUE-WINGED TEAL - Female in slough.  Luckily we had several looks to
be sure of the ID
     Gadwall - Still two around; they tend to get scarce starting in
late-June
     MOURNING DOVE - One flying around the south end of the East Meadow.
First of Year (FOY) for us
     Spotted Sandpiper - Adult at the weir
     Caspian Tern - One high flyby, calling, (FOY) for us
     Green Heron - One on the beaver lodge across from Dog Central
     MERLIN - One streaked towards the lake; Tree Swallow calls alerted us
to its passage
     Western Flycatcher - One heard at the Rowing Club, only our 2nd of the
year and first since May
     Lazuli Bunting - I had one when I first arrived in the park, and again
on my way out, in the NW corner of the park where we don't usually bird.
Our only Laz of the day

BLUE-WINGED TEAL, MOURNING DOVE, and MERLIN were all species that we've
only had once each in the last 30 years of visits for Week 26.

The heronry is substantially emptier.  The dead tree that has several nests
had just 5 juveniles on nests today, where we had 20 two weeks ago.  At the
weir, however, in a very small area we found at least 15 juveniles standing
in the water, waiting for fish to jump into their mouths.  Another juvenile
was low in a cottonwood, looking up, since up is where fish have always
appeared...

For the day, 58 species.  Adding MODO and Caspian Tern, I believe we're at
121 species for the year.

As an aside, Eastside Audubon has put out a video highlighting the Marymoor
Bird Loop.  I was interviewed for the video, and it's very obvious from my
appearance that the interview was filmed at 5:30 a.m., with me having
rushed over early before last week's survey.  See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-hdUIf8GLk&ab_channel=EastsideAudubonSociety

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