[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2021-04-15

[birdmarymoor at gmail.com]

Tweets – A gorgeous day at Marymoor this morning; not a cloud in the sky, just a few puffs of wind, and while the morning started at just 37 degrees at 6:30, temps rose to 62 degrees before we were done.  Mt. Rainier stood shining to the south.  Jupiter was a bright orb to the east before sunrise.  It was good.  Though this will sound rather strange given the list of species, it wasn’t really that birdy today.  There were quite a few one-offs, and the skies were often empty.

We did, again, split into two groups, with Jordan leading the second reverse-direction group.

Highlights:
  a.. Cackling Goose – probably at least 2000 streamed by heading NW around 6:00 a.m. 
  b.. American Wigeon – small flock overhead, with more at the lake.  Uncommon at this time of year at Marymoor 
  c.. Band-tailed Pigeon – just one for my group, but our best look of the year so far 
  d.. Great Blue Heron – heronry is expanding into additional nearby trees 
  e.. Cooper’s Hawk – my group had a brief look of one at the south end of the Dog Meadow.  First in a month 
  f.. PURPLE MARTIN – probably at least 6, with some in snags south of the Rowing Club, more at the Lake Platform gourds.  First of Year (FOY) 
  g.. American Pipit – my group had three, Fields 7-8-9 
  h.. RED CROSSBILL – Jordan’s group had 20 near the mansion; my group only heard them (FOY) 
  i.. Lincoln’s Sparrow – my group had two separate sightings of single birds.  Only our 3rd record for the year 
  j.. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW – Jordan’s group had one at the south end of the Dog Meadow.  5th latest spring sighting ever 
  k.. BREWER’S BLACKBIRD – at least 21 on the grass soccer fields next to where we park. This is a new High Count for the park.  FOY for us. 
  l.. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER – one SW of the windmill, another heard near the park entrance.  FOY, and 3rd earliest spring sighting ever
In a late scan of the lake, I found a pair of NORTHERN SHOVELER (FOY)

This was our 3rd earliest sighting for PURPLE MARTIN.

Based on my experience at Discovery Park on Tuesday, I had anticipated we’d have many Orange-crowned Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  But we completely dipped on Orange-crowns, and had just a single RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET.  I had found two Black-throated Gray Warblers at Disco on Tuesday, and was very happy to have a repeat of that today at Marymoor.

Big misses today were limited to just Rock Pigeon and Orange-crowned Warbler, as we managed 71 species between the two groups!

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