I made an impromptu trip out to Marymoor this morning.
It was interesting to do the loop solo for a change, instead of with a
dozen people. I missed the extra ears and eyes. There was a heavy
overcast, and a steady breeze. No rain, but the air was damp. The
barometer was probably falling, and birds were scarce and hard to see.
Highlights:
Cackling Goose 1000-1500, none landing
Western Grebe One on the lake
Green Heron Hidden along east shore at Rowing Club
DUNLIN 4 on floating dock seen from lake platform
Mew Gull About 1000 flew in at dawn to soccer fields
Hairy Woodpecker South end of East Meadow
Winter Wren Once again, singing at 2 locations
The Cackling Geese came over in about 10 flocks between 8:00 and 9:00
Dunlin are new for the year list.
Duck numbers remain absurdly low, with only a few Mallards, 4 Bufflehead
and
one Hooded Merganser at the Rowing Club, a and a flyby small flock of
wigeon. And no American Coots at all.
Oh - I should mention... Water levels are high. There's about 6" of
water
over the slough trail on the way to the boardwalk, and about 3" of water
over the boardwalk in places. No problem wearing tall rubber boots, but
too
much water for ankle boots.
== Michael
UPDATE 12/1/2009: There was a single BRANT with a flock of Cackling and Canada Geese in the NE part of the park, near the baseball diamonds. The geese flew out around 12:30. I also had a NORTHERN SHRIKE. A couple of Lincoln's Sparrows, and four American Coots were the other species I had there today that I did not see Monday.
Lillian Reis photographed this Fox Sparrow, 2009-11-27
Some of the ~1000 Mew Gulls on the soccer fields
Large flocks of (mostly) Cackling Geese were overhead...
... for much of the morning
"Slate-colored" Dark-eyed Junco