What a difference a week makes!  We had a glorious, bird-filled day today, in extreme contrast with last week.  It was cold and foggy to start, but the fog was thin and there was no wind.  The sun flirted with us for the first 3 hours before the fog finally burned off revealing pretty much cloudless blue skies.  Never really got warm, though. The morning started with a Cooper's Hawk on the fence just as we got to the weir - as we were watching it, a Merlin flew overhead and landed on one of its favorite perches.  Those were two of the 6 species of raptor we had.  We had a Sharpie in the Cottonwood Forest, a Bald Eagle, and many sightings of  Red-tailed Hawk, including the very cooperative juvenile several times. The bigger excitement was the BRANT goose with hundreds of CACKLING GEESE inside one of the baseball fields in the northeast corner of the park. What the heck was it doing there?  Congrats to Mark and Lee Crawford for predicting Brant as one of the "next birds for Marymoor" (I thought they were nuts when they nominated that one). Highlights: BRANT                            New bird for the park Green Heron                     Juvenile at the Rowing Club Northern Harrier               North end of the East Meadow MERLIN                          Two sightings, one early, one late Anna's Hummingbird         First sighting since late October NORTHERN SHRIKE    One east of East Meadow, one at Rowing Club Townsend's Warbler         One northeast of the mansion Fox Sparrow                    Numerous, in large groups - maybe 20 overall "Slate-colored" Junco        Female at Compost Piles At the Rowing Club we had the 3 RIVER OTTERS again. For the day, 56 species. == Michael	Cooper's Hawk below the weir in the early morning fog Male Purple Finch eating Oregon Ash seeds
Fox Sparrow photo by Ollie Oliver	Dark-eyed Juncos - male "Oregon" at left, female "Slate-colored" on right. Photo by Ollie Oliver
Close-up of the female "Slate-colored" Dark-eyed Junco	Brant goose with Cackling Geese
Brant goose with Cackling Geese.  Photo by Ollie Oliver	Brant goose with Cackling Geese.  Photo by Ollie Oliver
The photogenic juvenile Red-tailed Hawk near our cars once more	Ollie's photo of same
Female Hooded Merganser at the Rowing Club, with male Mallard	River Otter photo by Ollie Oliver, at the Rowing Club
Can you find the Wilson's Snipe?  It's right there, plain as day.  Really	Eastern Gray Squirrel near the mansion

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After a truly amazing sunrise and about an hour of good birding, we got completely hammered by the weather.  First were puffs of really warm wind - maybe 60-65 degrees, with sudden darkening of the skies.  You could tell the weather was about to flip.  At 8:30, it began to drizzle for a few minutes, and then the wind and the rain hit, and the temperature plummeted. It was not a real squall - it was not that sudden, nor were the winds that high, nor was it over quickly. After a couple of days of nice weather, this must have felt to the birds  like something they could ride out.  The birds simply disappeared.  We continued walking around for two more hours, completing our loop in record time.  There were NO BIRDS TO SEE or hear.  I think we went an hour without a single bird in flight - no crow, no robin (okay, maybe a gull).  We ended up skipping the loop around the mansion and went straight to the Rowing Club, which was duckless (except for Mallard), but seemed a bit more sheltered, perhaps, and did provide a few birds to end the morning with. Highlights: Brian Bell reported a GREAT HORNED OWL crossing West Lake Sammamish Parkway, I believe just south of SR-520. Matt and Scott had BARN OWLS near and in the windmill, and WILSON'S SNIPE calling all over the East Meadow at dawn. We had many RED-TAILED HAWK sightings - I'd seen four (at least 3 different ones) in 10 minutes right before we began.  The day ended with a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK scaring the wits out of some Mallards at the Rowing Club with a low strafing pass. There were large flocks of gulls, some of which landed on the grass soccer fields.  We had MEW, RING-BILLED, GLAUCOUS-WINGED, and WESTERN, but could not find California nor any rarity. Good looks at PINE SISKINS. And that was about it. For the morning, counting a single Rock Pigeon I saw on my way out, 40 species. == Michael

Sunrise photos by Scott Ramos

Great Blue Heron in the drizzle and dark. Photo by Ollie Oliver, right before he put his camera away for the day.

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I think the rain stopped about 6:00 a.m. (Matt and Scott, who were already birding at that hour might be able to be more precise on the timing).  The morning was still cloudy to start, with a few breezy gusts, but it turned into a gorgeous morning. Birds were about, probably glad for a break in the weather.  For some reason, we didn't manage that many really close sightings of most species, but things were definitely around. The water level was about 1' 3" higher than last week!   (And about 4" higher than yesterday morning)  This meant flooding near the start of the boardwalk, and generally muddy conditions elsewhere. Rubber boots were definitely called for. Matt and Scott had BARN OWLs, Matt with 2 at the windmill, and another flying over the road; Scott had one over the East Meadow.  Scott also flushed a SHORT-EARED OWL.  Those guys were out birding about the time I got up for the day... We had the usual 5 species of gulls for this time of year at Marymoor - mostly MEW GULLs, with about 10% GLAUCOUS-WINGED and "Olympic" Gulls, a few RING-BILLED GULLS,  at least one CALIFORNIA GULL, and one pure-looking WESTERN GULL.  All of these were swirling around the grass fields early on. With one group was a small shorebird, probably a DUNLIN. The biggest surprise was an amazingly late-season VAUX'S SWIFT that was generally above the weir area at about 8:00 a.m.  This is fully 6 weeks later than we've ever had one before. Large flocks of CACKLING GEESE flew overhead before about 8:30.  Some of those flocks had a few CANADA GEESE as well.  In all, we had 400-500 Cacklers, though none on the ground. A NORTHERN SHRIKE (I think only one) gave us many good looks.  It was ranging over a large area, from the model airplane field all the way over to the Pea Patch (though never seen north of the road, and usually within about 100 yards of it.)  A very nice adult bird.  This was our first look at a shrike at Marymoor this fall, although Tom Sanders photographed possibly the same one on the 4th - see the next issue of WOSNews. We had many accipiter sightings (at least 3-4 different birds and more sightings).  I'm confident we had both Sharpie and Cooper's, but I was definitely not able to tell on several of the sightings Duck numbers continue to be low.  We had a few MALLARD, about a dozen BUFFLEHEAD, a somewhat late WOOD DUCK, and several HOODED MERGANSER.  John Tubbs reported some GREEN-WINGED TEAL, but that was it for ducks. For the day, 59 species (and no mammals, curiously enough). == Michael	A flock at least substantially comprising Cacking Geese though there may be a Canada Goose or two Northern Shrike near model airplane field
Lincoln's Sparrow at the Compost Piles	Lincoln's Sparrow watching a Song Sparrow zip past.
Northern Shrike, north of grass soccer fields 7-8-9	Bufflehead pair at Rowing Club
Flooded fungi	This mushroom, in the East Meadow, was about 2" tall

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It was rainy and windy and dark, though not as bad as it might have been.  There were several hours where it wasn't raining much, and it wasn't too, too cold, and the wind and the rain tended to stay away from each other somewhat.  So while my hat was soaked through, the rest of me did pretty well.  The water level in the lake is up about 5 inches since last week. We were joined by a nice couple,  the Gurka's from Massachusetts, who stuck  it out through the whole loop, and managed to add to their Washington State lists.  With them, I think we were about 10 people. The birds seemed to be hoping the weather would blow over and the day would revert to yesterday's perfection.  If so, they were disappointed.  But the result was a whole lot of not much, especially early on.  Not much flying, not much chirping, not much hopping around, not much sitting on exposed perches.  We had a grand total of 7 geese, all Canadas.  We did manage 5 species of duck, but 3 of those were seen only in flight.  No surprises all day. Highlights: Bufflehead                      First of Fall, flyby Common Merganser       2 flying over Dog Meadow Wilson's Snipe                Pea Patch and Rowing Club Barn Owl                       Matt and Scott keep finding these early Townsend's Warbler       One near the windmill Fox Sparrows                 More ubiquitous than usual Western Meadowlark     2-3 with starlings in NE corner of the park Purple Finch                    In hard-to-see ash trees south of Dog Meadow The best highlight were the three RIVER OTTERS at the Rowing Club main pond, giving us outstanding looks.  It appeared to be an adult and 2 young. We managed 51 species. == Michael

Hooded Merganser pair at the Rowing Club.  Photo by Ollie Oliver, 2008-11-07 Hooded Merganser females at the Rowing Club.  Photo by Ollie Oliver, 2008-11-07

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It seemed pretty quiet today.  Early on there was fog, but it lifted early on, such that it didn't effect much except owling.  It remained overcast all morning, though, and we had about 16 drops of rain as we passed the windmill.  No wind, a touch cold, but fine.  It just didn't feel very birdy. Highlights: Cackling Goose                 Large flock (125?) almost pure Branta minima minima Wood Duck                      3-4.  We have few sightings of them this late Western Grebe                  Several on lake Barn Owl                          Matt had 2 early, including 1 *in* the windmill Red-breasted Sapsucker   One near the start of the boardwalk Brown Creeper                 Almost didn't see it - it was too close! Fox Sparrow                     Several especially nice looks "Slate-colored" Junco        Near the first bench.  Everyone saw it but me. After the walk, I went to the 187th St viewpoint off East Lake Samm. Parkway, and had a couple of good birds: Common Loon                 One quite close to the lake platform Common Merganser         Three in the northeast corner Despite the feeling that there wasn't that much to see, 59 species for the day.  So maybe I'm just jaded... == Michael

Red-breasted Sapsucker near the start of the boardwalk Ollie Oliver's photo of Killdeer on the grass soccer fields

Great Blue Heron on the Pea Patch fence

Fungi in the Pea Patch

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