[Tweeters] Marymoor Park (Redmond, King Co.) 2025-05-01

[Michael Hobbs via Tweeters]

Tweets - Fabulous today at Marymoor, as expected.  This week, Week 18, has
by far the highest cumulative species count for any week of the year, and
we expect to find ~70 species on our Week 18 survey.  With today's perfect
weather, we were not disappointed.  The odd thing about Week 18 is that,
while you're pretty sure it's going to be awesome, exactly what birds
you'll find is always a surprise.

Highlights:
     Blue-winged Teal - Four landed just out from the Lake Platform, First
of Year (FOY).  This is the 3rd-earliest we've ever had them
     Northern Shoveler - Large flyover flock that was at least mostly
shovelers, then a pair at the lake for good looks (FOY)
     Green-winged Teal - Still 2-4 lingering.  We seldom get them later
     Ring-necked Duck - Four seen from the Lake Platform, but large numbers
were on the lake.  Seldom do we get these in May
     Virginia Rail - One *seen* several times just below the weir
     SOLITARY SANDPIPER - Below the weir, only our 10th ever (FOY)
     Greater Yellowlegs - Below the weir (FOY)
     Least Sandpiper - Around 4 below the weir (FOY).  Week 18 has, BY FAR,
the most LESA records for any week at Marymoor
     Osprey - Seemed to have reclaimed two nests from the Canada Geese that
were sitting on them the last several weeks
     Western Flycatcher - One near the Dog Area portapotties (FOY)
     Warbling Vireo - Two along the west edge of Dog Meadow (FOY)
     Purple Martin - Back at both pairs of gourds.  Appear to have evicted
the Tree Swallows that had been using the gourds
     Hermit Thrush - One along the west edge of Dog Meadow, first since
January.  ID confirmed by calls
     American Pipit - Flock(s), with one flock of ~25 seen fairly well in
the grass/gravel parking lot (FOY)
     Yellow Warbler - Male singing from SE corner of the East Meadow
(FOY).  On the early side for this species
     Wilson's Warbler - One heard singing incessantly from near the East
Footbridge (south of the East Meadow) (FOY)
     Black-headed Grosbeak - Matt heard a few singing loudly pre-dawn, but
none were noted during the main walk (FOY)

The WILSON'S WARBLER was truly annoying.  For about 5 minutes, nine of us
strained for a view while it sang every 10 seconds from no more than 20
yards away.  Nobody even got a flash of yellow, but the song was
unmistakable.

A late scan of the lake turned up one PIED-BILLED GREBE and one unexpected
HORNED GREBE in breeding plumage.  One seen 06-May-2021 is our only other
May HOGR.  As I left the park, I stopped at the model airplane field, and
near the East Maintenance facility I picked up NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED and
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS.

Misses today included Hooded Merganser, Band-tailed Pigeon, Vaux's Swift,
American Coot, Cliff Swallow, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Western Tanager.
Despite those misses, we had 72 species (counting 2 gull sp. that were
almost certainly GWGU or Olympics, but so far away as to be hard to get to
gull).

Blue-winged Teal was new for Week 18, bringing the cumulative total for
this week to 154 species.  Next closest is Week 17 at 142 species.  No
other week has even 140 species.

Adding ELEVEN new birds for the year, we're at 107 species for the survey
for 2025.

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