Friends of Marymoor Park

I have been monitoring "Snag Row" since January, 2003, on a weekly basis.  Below is a table of the occurrence of birds within the snag area.

Birds use the cottonwood snags for perching.  They may also find food on the snags; gleaning insects off the bark, boring into the bark to find insects, gleaning insects off leaves (not all of the cottonwoods were completely killed), or using the snags as perches from which to flycatch.  Once we observed an Osprey breaking a branch off of a snag to use in building their nest.  A few species of bird will excavate nest holes in these snags.  Others will use or enlarge existing nest holes.  Non-cavity nesters may build nests in the branches of the snags.  My data do not currently show nesting information; I hope to add that later.

Retained live trees in the snag area are used in all of the same ways as snags.  However, non-cavity nests and leaf gleaning are more common on live trees, while cavity nesting and boring for insects are less common.  Snags provide better perching opportunities as well for visual hunters such as hawks and flycatchers.

The new plantings are still quite small and are of limited use to birds.

Many birds forage, nest, and rest on the ground, on the fences, and on/in weeds and scrub in the snag area.  These usages are listed under "Ground".  The fencing provides an extensive area suitable for ground-loving birds such as sparrows.

A total of 56 species of bird have been observed using the snag area so far.  In addition, we have observed 3 species of mammal: Eastern Gray Squirrel, Cottontail Rabbit, and Long-tailed Weasel (once).

= Michael Hobbs, East Lake Washington Audubon Society.  More information about birding Marymoor

Weekly bird sightings January 2003-September 2004