[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2025-09-25

[Teresa Michelsen via Tweeters]

Some thoughts, we do have a pine forest up in the Lake Kokanee-Cushman area in Mason County where I live. It’s pretty native in a lot of areas around here including the slopes down to the lakes (which I live on the edge of), we do have breeding Pacific Wrens, Barred and Great Horned Owls, etc. I have a flock of about 6 Band-Tailed Pigeons at my feeders now stocking up for the winter. I can’t say for sure they’re resident but they are around pretty regularly. Canada Jays are around as well at various times of year, but this is when I really get a lot of traffic so I put out some extra food for the coming winter.

Teresa Michelsen
Up above Hoodsport

From: Tweeters <tweeters-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Alan Roedell via Tweeters
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 10:41 PM
To: Michael Hobbs <birdmarymoor at gmail.com>
Cc: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2025-09-25

Interesting natural history account.
Well done, thank you for sharing.

On Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:24 PM Michael Hobbs via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu<mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>> wrote:
I wanted to add some notes, because several people have commented
about both Osprey and Band-tailed Pigeon occurrences in fall.

First, my comments about the likelihood of these species was strictly
relevant only to Marymoor and specifically to the Marymoor Survey.

With regards to Osprey, our next survey is not until October 2.  While
it is likely that Osprey might be seen during the next 6 days, we've
only had Osprey sightings in 9 out of 31 years after October 1st, so
it's quite likely we've seen our last for the 2025 Survey.  Also, even
though we've had Osprey as late as December 15th, there's no reason to
believe any Osprey that nested at Marymoor are still around by
October.  What we've noted in those 9 years are almost certainly birds
from further north who are migrating south.  They may catch a fish to
eat while at the park, but they aren't living at the park.  If they
were still resident, we'd see them more often during the 4-5 hours
we're at the park each Thursday morning.

BTW, this is true of many species.  Our nesting Savannah Sparrows seem
to clear out pretty quickly after nesting season, and we have a big
drop in numbers and even gaps in occurance.  Then, in late August and
September, we get a push of Savannahs through the park.  These birds
tend to be in locks of up to a dozen, and appear larger and brighter
than our nesting birds. I've heard that the American Robins that nest
around Seattle mostly leave, being replaced during winter by robins
who nested further north.  The breeding Fox Sparrows in our mountains
are a different subspecies than our wintering lowland Fox Sparrows, so
even though Fox Sparrows are present all year round in the state,
there may be no individual which lives in the state all the time.

As for Band-tailed Pigeons, Marymoor is not at all an ideal habitat
for them; not for breeding, and especially not in winter.  There are
wintering Band-tails in the county, and several people have them at
their feeders in the winter, but they are pretty much only at (or
often just flying over) Marymoor during the summer when they are
nesting in nearby areas.  We've had no indication that they nest in
the park.  And many Band-tailed Pigeons do migrate south.  We were
just in Klickitat County on the Columbia River over the weekend, and 3
or 4 times we saw tight flocks of dozens of Band-tailed Pigeons flying
around.  These are almost certainly migrants who were massing for the
flight across the river, something they likely do at night to avoid
Peregrine Falcons.

One of the things that make Washington a great place to bird is the
incredible number of micro-habitats.  Even at the county level, we
typically have great diversity of habitats, such that every county has
a long list of species possible.  Within King County, birds are very
definitely not uniformly distributed, even when you adjust for
elevation.  What's true about Marymoor is not necessarily true about
other places that are quite close to the park.  Marymoor has no
natural conifer forest, with pretty much all of the conifers being in
an equal-aged stand of Doug Firs around the mansion.  Parks mows under
those trees, so there isn't a trace of the typical understory of a
conifer forest.  Thus, Marymoor has no breeding Pacific Wrens,
although they nest in forested areas just upslope from Lake Sammamish.
For Marymoor, Pac wrens are only a winter species (probably comprising
individuals that nested in areas of the Cascades that get covered by
snow).  The lack of conifers extends to the park not having any good
mixed forest areas, so Hutton's Vireos are very unusual in the park.
Hutton's seem to prefer wet forests with a mix of deciduous trees
,madrones, and conifers (especially Red Cedars).  Hutton's are common
on Mercer Island and at Lincoln Park, but not at Marymoor.

Marymoor does, itself, have a great mix of habitats.  We make up for
the absence of good conifer forests by having better grasslands than
much of the county. Thus we have a pretty good chance for meadowlarks,
shrikes, Savannah Sparrows, etc. than many parts of the county.  Lake
Sammamish is a large enough lake to lure in some diversity of water
birds.  Marymoor is also large enough to be visible to fly-over birds
as a bit of a green oasis.  That likely explains how we can have a
park list currently at 246 species.

And all of this is why I can still find great interest and enjoyment
in birding at the park, even after more than 31 years.

= Michael Hobbs
= BirdMarymoor at gmail.com<mailto:BirdMarymoor at gmail.com>
= www.marymoor.org/birding.htm<http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm>

On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 12:31 PM Michael Hobbs <birdmarymoor at gmail.com<mailto:birdmarymoor at gmail.com>> wrote:

>

> Tweets - A pretty good day at Marymoor.  Though a bit nippy (49

> degrees at the start), it was sunny and windless.  Fairly birdy too.

>

> Highlights:

>      Band-tailed Pigeon - Two sightings of a single bird.  We get

> fairly few sightings after mid-September

>      Wilson's Snipe - Two landed in the mud on the far side of the

> slough opposite one of the Dog Beaches.  Great looks, unusual location

>      Osprey - Only one silent bird; nests are empty.  We are unlikely

> to get another sighting this year

>      American Kestrel - One in the East Meadow

>      Merlin - One streaked by us near the start of our walk; thus a

> two falcon day

>      Ruby-crowned Kinglet - At least one, singing weakly near Dog

> Central, never seen.  First of Fall (FOF)

>      Pacific Wren - One at the Rowing Club, heard calling but not seen (FOF)

>      Swainson's Thrush - One heard pre-dawn, probably the last for the year

>      Western Meadowlark - Five in the East Meadow (FOF)

>

> We also had a tight flock of more than a dozen pale-bellied ducks

> flying down the slough fairly high - possibly American Wigeon, but

> hard to be sure.

>

> Misses today included Hooded Merganser, American Coot, California

> Gull, Green Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Bushtit (though I had some

> yesterday in the Dog Meadow), American Pipit (though we might have

> heard one), Savannah Sparrow, and Orange-crowned Warbler.

>

> Despite the rather long list of misses, we still managed 56 species

> (not counting the mystery ducks).  Not a bad day.

>

> = Michael Hobbs

> = BirdMarymoor at gmail.com<mailto:BirdMarymoor at gmail.com>

> = www.marymoor.org/birding.htm<http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm>

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