[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-03-16

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets - It was COLD at the start (28 degrees), under clear skies.  The sun did help to slowly warm things up.  It was a pretty birding day.  Most notably, we had our first Spring migrants of the year.

Highlights:
        Cackling Goose - After several weeks with well under 100 birds, today we had a flock of ~600 flying south just after sunrise
        Northern Pintail - I had one drake flying high, only our 3rd sighting of the year
        Eurasian Collared-Dove - One along the Dog Meadow/East Meadow line.  First of Year (FOY)
        Band-tailed Pigeon - 3-4 high in the firs west of the mansion (FOY)
        Five Woodpecker Day - 2nd straight week for this small feat
        TREE SWALLOW - 3-4 birds, probably.  Some at the Pea Patch, some at the East Meadow (FOY)
        Varied Thrush - Showing it's still wintry, we heard one near the mansion
        SAVANNAH SPARROW - At least two along the Dog Meadow/East Meadow line.  (FOY)
        Western Meadowlark - One seen briefly, East Meadow
        Yellow-rumped Warbler - Numbers growing.  Both Audubon's and Myrtle, in about equal numbers as far as I could tell

We also had the first turtles of the year at the Rowing Club pond, both Painted Turtle and Red-eared Slider

The list of species singing was very similar, if not identical, to last week's.

Yesterday, I had four AMERICAN WIGEON below the weir, my first since January at the park.  I also heard and AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and saw two HOUSE FINCH yesterday, both of which were among today's misses.

Other misses for the day included Short-billed Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Northern Shrike, Violet-green Swallow (seen 19 of previous 28 years), and Pine Siskin

Speaking of misses, we will be missing MARK & LEE CRAWFORD, who are moving to New York.  One, the other, and frequently both, have been on well over 600 of the Marymoor surveys since 2006.  We wish them a great time with spring warbler migration in Marymoor East!

For the day, a year's best 61 species, plus the Ring-necked Pheasant.

= Michael Hobbs