A surprisingly interesting day at Marymoor this morning. About 15 of us wandered around on a morning with heavy, dead air, under mostly overcast skies. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of heat to go with the humidity, and by about 8:00 a touch of breeze came up. That kept the mosquito problem down to uncomfortable.
We kind of expect June to be a fairly static month, yet we had 10 species this week that we didn't have last week.
Highlights:
Sharp-shinned Hawk Grace & Ollie
reported 1 in the Pea Patch
Cooper's Hawk Adult (& immature?) near
mansion
Caspian Tern One flying down river
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1 singing at start of
boardwalk
Purple Martin Male in gourd with 2
females
Orange-crowned Warbler 2(?) singing at "Mysterious Thicket"
Lazuli Bunting Several males singing
still
Evening Grosbeak Male calling at east end
of boardwalk
An OSPREY was seen atop the Odd Snag which has hosted nesting RED-AILED HAWKS for years. The hawk nest failed this year (report of a Bald Eagle raid). Sharon saw a Red-tail atop the snag moments after the Osprey had been seen, so the hawks may be maintaining ownership of the nest.
The GREEN HERON nest at the Rowing Club was empty, but one mostly-feathered young bird was a few feet away. Presumably the others had managed to fly to other parts of the pond edges. Many adults were sighted today.
This week (#25) is the week with the most CASPIAN TERN
sightings at Marymoor. Terns have been seen on 13 weeks, spanning
May-July plus 1 April and 1 August sighting. We've seen terns on 35
total days, and 7 of those have been on week #25. So this week appears
to be the peak of their summer wandering.
The BARN OWL nestbox had an adult visible, but in the morning, a
white-fluffed baby, looking like a demented sock puppet, was also seen
in the box. It's still unknown how many babies there are this year, but
the box looks crowded
Once again, Scott heard a WESTERN SCREECH-OWL southwest of the windmill area somewhere in the early morning.
The EVENING GROSBEAK is our first sighting of that species in "summer" (June/July).
For the day, 61 species.
== Michael
A baby Barn Owl on the left, with a hint of the face of the adult, right
Rufous Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird, photo by Ollie Oliver
Anna's Hummingbird, photo by Yoshi Nishimura
Female Purple Martins
Male Purple Martin in near, left gourd
Male Purple Martin, photo by Yoshi Nishimura
The amazing sky over the lake platform
Nothern Flicker
Male American Goldfinch, photo by Yoshi Nishimura
Violet-green Swallow, photo by Yoshi Nishimura
Osprey atop Red-tailed Hawk nest on odd-snag west of the park
