[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2021-03-25

[birdmarymoor at gmail.com]

Tweets – The night’s rain let up in time for our walk.  We had only a touch of mizzle at first, and then things cleared to where there was even quite a bit of blue sky.  A little rain started not long after we finished; we really lucked out.  Not a hint of wind either, making for a notably glassy lake.  It was pretty birdy.  This time of year, we’re always overeager for spring arrivals, and today we faced disappointment there.  Nothing new that way.  But a really good day otherwise. 

Highlights:
  a.. Wood Duck – a couple of sightings, including a female that landed atop a short snag in the SE corner of the park.  Looking for a nest hole? 
  b.. Dabbling ducks – a large flock spent the morning on the grass soccer fields, including over 150 Mallards, and over a dozen each of Gadwall, American Wigeon, and Green-winged Teal 
  c.. Lesser Scaup – 5 males and 4 females very, very far out on the lake, confirmed after the walk from Sammamish Landing Park 
  d.. Sharp-shinned Hawk – one at the Rowing Club was a First of Year (FOY) for us 
  e.. “Taiga” Merlin – seen looking west across the slough from the 2nd Dog Swim Beach.  Identified by photos, as it was far away.  Far too pale for “Black” Merlin.  A very definite supercilium, thin white bands on the black tail, and faint-but-definite moustache marks all point to “Taiga” 
  f.. Northern Shrike – East Meadow.  We were able to rule out the possibility of Loggerhead via photos.  Just before disappearing, it took what looked to be a cached prey item out of a hawthorn tree. 
  g.. Hutton’s Vireo – Brian had one at the Rowing Club parking lot 
  h.. Cedar Waxwing – at least 6 at the Rowing Club 
  i.. Yellow-rumped Warbler – first song for the year near the mansion, looks at two “Myrtle” subspecies at the Rowing Club 
  j.. Townsend’s Warbler – one, singing faintly, just west of the concert stage
It was also an excellent day for mammals.  I had a VIRGINIA OPOSSUM (FOY) along the road at 6:45 a.m.   We had two disparate sightings of LONG-TAILED WEASEL, both carrying prey.  There were two RIVER OTTER swimming out to the lake.  And we had a few sightings of the non-native EASTERN COTTONTAILS and EASTERN GRAY SQUIRRELS.  We were not able to get good enough looks at the weasel prey animals to positively add any other mammals to the day’s list 

The temporary fencing is up around the GREAT BLUE HERON heronry.  It does not extend out beyond the drip-line of the trees, and therefore doesn’t inhibit access for viewing at all.  In a photo I took, I counted at least 70 herons, and over 40 nests, in the heronry.  Underneath the trees, on the freshly-spread straw, were probably a couple of dozen empty large bluish egg shells.  From this, we presume the first chicks have hatched already.  The straw was put down last Thursday afternoon, I believe, so the eggs have hatched since then.

Misses today included Rock Pigeon, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Cooper’s Hawk, Savannah Sparrow, and Western Meadowlark.

For the day, 66 species.

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