[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2023-11-22

[birdmarymoor]

Tweets – We had a fabulous day at Marymoor today.  The weather was as good as it gets in late November, maybe better.  No wind or precipitation, a very little fog that formed late and cleared early, and temps in the high 40’s!  Only downer was that we did have to deal with flocks of falling leaves...
 
Highlights:
    Northern Shoveler – Five flew down the slough – First for 2023 (FOY)
    American Wigeon – Two flew down the slough.  We usually only see them when the park is flooded, which it is not right now
    Western Grebe – Three seen well from the Lake Platform
    Short-billed Gull – One on the grass fields with other gulls.  First of Fall (FOF)
    Sharp-shinned Hawk – One near the weir (FOF)
    Northern Saw-whet Owl – One replied to calls around 6:10 a.m.  (FOF)
    Hermit Thrush – Tony saw one in a bush in the Dog Meadow
    White-throated Sparrow – Drab individual near 3rd Dog Swim Beach
    
    ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK – Female/juvenile just north of the pea gravel path that cuts across the south end of the Dog Meadow.  Marymoor First !
 
The RBGR was in the trees at the corner of that pea gravel path and the bark path along the west side of the Dog Meadow, in amongst a couple of dozen Golden-crowned Sparrows.  It seemed only slightly larger than the GCSPs.  It called a few times, which is what drew me over to that tree.  It flew around a little bit to other bushes to the north, but was last seen flying east from the original tree.  This is the 244th species of bird for Marymoor Park, and the first new species for the park list since the Harris’s Sparrow last year.  Photos of the bird can be seen on eBird.
 
Misses today included Common Merganser, Brown Creeper, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, and Red-winged Blackbird.
 
For the day, 54 species.
 
= Michael Hobbs
= www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
= BirdMarymoor at gmail.com