Well the weather sucked. High 40's to low 50's, overcast, drizzle, cold wind. Mayvember again. Still, there were at least 10 of us out there this morning trying to find spring somewhere.
It was moderately birdy, but the viewing was terrible. We often spent long minutes searching fruitlessly for the bird we could hear siging "in that tree - it's got to be". Several times, though, we did find the birds with work.
Lots and lots of BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS singing - the new ubiquitous species.
We had two mystery empidonax flycatchers, which were kind of the highlight of the day, and caused lots of conversation.
Other highlights:
Bufflehead Four females still at
the lake
Green Heron Four sighted, including on the RC nest
Pacific-slope Flycatcher Very obvious ID on this guy
Warbling Vireo Nearly as common as the grosbeaks
Swainson's Thrush 1 seen, two more heard. FOS
Cedar Waxwing 2 near east footbridge FOS
Townsend's Warbler 1 singing, and finally seen, at Rowing Club
Western Tanager Male and female at Rowing Club
Matt saw some DEER, we had one RACCOON climbing a cottonwood near Dog Central, and there were loads of Eastern Cottontail rabbits.
After the walk, there was the official opening of the Marymoor Connector Trail (new bike trail connecting the Sammamish River Trail to the East Lake Sammamish Trail, through Marymoor Park). The opening event was held over by the model airplane field at the east side of the park. I added a couple of birds to the day list - RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, drumming, and a single PURPLE MARTIN.
For the day, we had 59 species, plus the mystery empidonax(es). For the year, we're up to 130 species.
== Michael
Male Black-headed Grosbeak obscured by the leaves,
typical of the kind of views we had today.
Eastern Cottontail in the East Meadow
Pacific-slope Flycatcher near first footbridge
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Ollie Oliver's photo of Cedar Waxwings near the east footbridge
Ollie's photo of the Green Heron on the nest at the Rowing Club
Ollie's photo of a female Western Tanager at the Rowing Club
Male Hairy Woodpecker at the nest hole, across from the Rowing Club dock.
Photo by Ollie Oliver
Ollie went back later and found a female Wood Duck with 10-11 ducklings
...and one of the ducklings was a Hooded Merganser
(in front of her tail, the near one of the trio)
Ollie's photo of a non-native snail
Brian Dobbin's photographed a Virginia Rail and baby
on the east side of the boardwalk on May 14.