[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2024-06-13

[Michael Hobbs via Tweeters]

Tweets - It was fabulous to be out today - Not too cold, not too hot, great
light, no wind, and lots of singing and activity.  And Marymoor chipped in
with a couple of surprises.

Highlights:
     Mourning Dove - One flew down the East Meadow
     Rufous Hummingbird - Several females seen; we've been seeing males
most of the time previously this year
     Caspian Tern - Perhaps as many as four flying around the lake.
First of Year (FOY) for the survey
     Great Blue Heron - Many young, fledged birds, doing their bests to fly
and fish
     Pileated Woodpecker - A couple of sightings.  June is the month with
the fewest records of this species
     Western Flycatcher - One heard at the Rowing Club
     YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT - Singing male, SE of the East Meadow (FOY)
     MacGillivray's Warbler - Male singing and posing, south of Dog Central
along the slough trail

Initially, we barely heard the singing YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT while we walked
the grass trail along the east edge of the East Meadow.  We made our way,
through the tall reed-canary grass and stinging nettles, east and south to
where we were able to get distant views of the bird.  It was singing
frequently, and at least 4-5 times we saw it do display flights (which none
of us had ever seen chats do before), where it would fly with its head up
and its feet and tail hanging straight down, forming an inverted L shape.
It would fly slowly with very fluttery wingbeats to a new bush or tree to
sing from.  This appears to be just the 5th record of YBCH for Marymoor,
and the first record for June.  The other dates were May 15, 2019; May 31,
2021; July 12-14, 2012; and August 25 and September 9, 2006.

MacGillivray's Warbler turns up about two out of every three years.  This
is our 2nd sighting in the last 3 weeks, and today it gave more opportunity
for views.

Also notable today were a large number of Eastern Cottontail including
fairly small young, and a dead vole on the path.

Misses today included Common Merganser, Rock Pigeon, Black Swift, Green
Heron, Belted Kingfisher, & Cliff Swallow.

For the day, 58 species.

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