[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2021-09-09

[birdmarymoor at gmail.com]

Tweets – Despite a perfect day for weather, it seemed SO quiet out there.  Except when I look at the bird list things look pretty good.  Huh???  Definitely very few neo-tropical migrants, and we were also lacking in really good looks at many of the birds.  Nothing extraordinarily rare today, but some surprises.

Highlights:
  a.. Northern Shoveler – one flyby over the East Meadow 
  b.. Northern Pintail – flyby of two as we started the main survey 
  c.. Eurasian Collared-Dove – One seen well.  99% sure there was a second bird too, flying further away from us 
  d.. Mourning Dove – one with the well-seen Collared-Dove, at the Compost Piles 
  e.. Wilson’s Snipe – Mark & Lee reported one on the grass soccer fields near Killdeer – First of Fall (FOF) 
  f.. Caspian Tern – one flew downstream over the slough.  This is our 2nd latest Fall sighting ever 
  g.. Pileated Woodpecker – heard several times, seen once flying distantly 
  h.. Merlin – seen twice about 6:45, SW of the mansion 
  i.. Pacific-slope Flycatcher – one at the SW end of the East Meadow was our only flycatcher 
  j.. Warbling Vireo – maybe 3-4 
  k.. Barn Swallow? – three dark swallows over the lake were probably this species.  Our only swallows 
  l.. Orange-crowned Warbler – about 3, all near the East Meadow 
  m.. Black-throated Gray Warbler – only one
A late scan of the lake confirmed two BONAPARTE’S GULLS that had been very distantly visible earlier from the Lake Platform.  First of Year, and our earliest Fall sighting ever.  I was also able to identify most of the other gulls out there as CALIFORNIAs.  A WESTERN GREBE was FOF and a bit of a surprise – this was the 3rd earliest Fall sighting for this species.

It was great seeing a EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE flying together *with* a MOURNING DOVE.  They landed together in one of the trees north of the Compost Piles.  Matt had a flyby BAND-TAILED PIGEON, and we later had a ROCK PIGEON near Hwy 520, for a four species day of the Columbidae family.

Misses today included Hooded Merganser, Vaux’s Swift, Green Heron, Willow Flycatcher, Bushtit, Yellow Warbler, Western Tanager, and Black-headed Grosbeak.  We also had no Western Wood-Pewee nor Violet-green Swallow but those species don’t make the cut for being called “misses”, narrowly shy of the cuttoff of 50% of previous surveys during Week 36, but their absence added to the feeling that there were very few neo-tropical migrants.

For the day, 62 species in total, though there were many species seen/heard by only a small number of participants.

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