[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2022-03-03

[birdmarymoor at gmail.com]

Tweets – Once again the weather forecasters failed us.  The predicted daily deluge failed to deliver.  We had a pretty nice morning with only a few minutes of mizzle; the rest of the morning was dry and quite pleasant.    Not that it wasn’t wet in the park, though.  Since last week the lake level is up about a foot-and-a-half, and the the boardwalk and adjacent trail were under a few inches of water (6” or so at the deepest).   With American Robins singing their hearts out (ouch), it really starts to feel like spring.

Highlights:
  a.. Horned Grebe – one visible from the Lake Platform, though distant 
  b.. Virginia Rail – an absolute chorus from east of the East Meadow before dawn 
  c.. California Gull – two adults on the grass fields – First of Year (FOY) 
  d.. HERRING GULL – nice adult on grass fields – (FOY) 
  e.. Great Blue Heron – I counted at least 91 herons in the heronry.  Many sticks were being brought in.  A least one heron was *sitting* on a nest, not just standing 
  f.. Barn Owl – one working the East Meadow and around to the model airplane field, 6:00-6:15 a.m. 
  g.. BARRED OWL – Matt heard one SW of the mansion very early (FOY) 
  h.. Pileated Woodpecker – one near the heronry 
  i.. Merlin – one landed NE of the Pea Patch (FOY) 
  j.. White-throated Sparrow – Brian had one at the Pea Patch 
  k.. Western Meadowlark – at least one singing from the model airplane field 
  l.. Yellow-rumped Warbler – three sightings, at least 2 birds (amazingly FOS)
Still no actual spring arrivals – maybe next week.

Predawn birds were hard to hear over the PACIFIC TREE FROGS in full chorus.

Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Short-billed and Ring-billed Gulls, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Northern Shrike, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin

Despite that long list of “misses” (birds seen at least 50% of previous years), we still managed 57 species.  The survey is at 78 species for the year.

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