[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-04-20

[Matt Bartels]

Hi Tweeters -
With Michael away, Brian Bell and I led the weekly Marymoor walk today. While we haven’t yet seen a sunny warm Thursday , this week’s weather was decent - cool and overcast, but we were done before the rain started  - we’ll take it.

The big highlight for the day was early on. Yesterday a SAGE THRASHER was reported at Marymoor by the east meadow viewing mound. An early crew of KC birders over there - about 7:15, word reached our main group that it was still present and we opted to go there right away. Great looks for all. I was surprised to find this was at least Sage Thrasher #7 for Marymoor — still quite a fun eastside bird to see!

We opted complete the loop in reverse direction from there, and the birding was decent throughout.

Highlights:

SAGE THRASHER - FOS - see above
PURPLE MARTIN - several perched on a small tree in the east meadow - our FOS 
GREATER YELLOWLEGS - 2 along the slough below the weir - FOS
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER - 2 FOS [one seen, one singing]
GREAT-BLUE HERON - many hatched eggs on ground below heronry, the first audible ‘grum-grum-grum’ing from the nests
LINCOLN’S SPARROW - 2 or 3 still lingering/passing
FOX SPARROW - only one left today
OSPREY - several around, but so far the 2 Canada Goose pairs have maintained their hold on last year’s 2 Osprey nests - looks like a new nest is going up on a light pole near the east nest [looks pretty flimsy tho]

On the mammal side, we got nice looks at our first Long-tailed Weasel of the year too

Misses today:
Cackling Goose - gone for season?
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - likewise, none today
Red-tailed Hawk - maybe too overcast to soar, or just on nests?
Killdeer - probably quiet on nests somewhere

In all we tallied 62 species for the day - bring on spring!

Matt Bartels [& Brian Bell]
Seattle [& Woodinville]