[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2021-11-04

[birdmarymoor at gmail.com]

Geez – You’d think people would have the sense to check the weather forecast, for they would surely have known to stay home if they had!  There were NINE of us yesterday for three hours of very wet and dark birding with occasional bonus breezes.  The timing couldn’t have been worse, as it was nice pre-dawn and nice again starting at 11:00.  Birds were terribly hard to come by, and only an owl kept it from being a waste of a morning.  

Highlights:
  a.. Bufflehead – about twenty at the lake – First of Fall (FOF)  
  b.. Greater Scaup – three females out from the Viewing Mound – we’ve decided these are almost certainly Greater 
  c.. Hooded Merganser – at least 7 at the Rowing Club – First Flock of Fall (FFOF)  
  d.. SHORT-EARED OWL – hounded out of the East Meadow by crows a bit before 10:00 a.m.  
  e.. Merlin – quick flyby
Matt and Eric had the SHORT-EARED OWL before sunrise in the East Meadow and had noted that it might have settled down in the grass there.  Two hours later, as we made are way north up the East Meadow, we spotted AMERICAN CROWS harassing something in the grass about where the owl might be.  Sure enough, long before we ever got close enough to effect the outcome, the crows drove the owl into the air.  For at least a minute we watched as the owl circled higher and higher over the meadow with crows keeping pace.  I finally lost it in the gray.  We were very lucky on the timing of that one, as the crows could have found the owl just 5 minutes earlier and we would have missed it.

On a quick drive-through after the Rowing Club I spotted ROCK PIGEON and a NORTHERN SHRIKE. 

Misses today included Gadwall, Western Grebe, Virginia Rail, Cooper’s Hawk, Downy Woodpecker, Bushtit, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Marsh Wren, Cedar Waxwing, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.  

For the morning, just 48 species, our first sub-50 total of 2021.  Hopefully our last.

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