Michael is still in Prague so he missed out on the last Marymoor walk of the year. Today started out mostly cloudy and chilly, but with no wind. It gradually clouded over completely, but with structure to the clouds and the Cascades visible on the horizon. Eventually the cloud cover became a solid gray stratus and we waited for the rain. The rain, predicted to start at 10 AM held off and didn’t start until close to noon. The species diversity was good, although the absolute numbers of birds seemed to be down. There were a few birds singing including Bewick's and Marsh Wrens and Red-winged Blackbirds, and several other species were giving abbreviated versions of songs.
We didn't see anything spectacular but did have nice sightings of:
Barn Owls
Trumpeter Swans
Common Merganser
Green Heron
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Northern Harrier
hear 3 Virginia Rails
and get nice looks at the Northern Shrike.
55 species
All in all, it was a good day for the last day of December.
Brian H. Bell
Male Common Merganser. Photo by Ollie Oliver
Common Goldeneye pair near the weir. Photo by Hugh Jennings
Ollie's shot of the same
Bufflehead at the lake, with at least two Common Goldeneye. Photo by Lillian Reis
Four female Common Goldeneye, with Bufflehead. Photo by Lillian Reis
Adult Cooper's Hawk. Photo by Ollie Oliver
Chestnut-backed Chickadee. Photo by Ollie Oliver
Definitely not at Marymoor...
As Brian mentioned, we've been in Prague,
Czech Republic. The winter birding here is very slow - I've seen
fewer species in two weeks than the Marymoor crew had in 5 hours on
Thursday. But there are some rather nice birds amongst them,
including this Blue Tit, Parus caeruleus. I haven't managed
any other photos, really, as I only have my wife's snapshot camera, but
I have seen Green Woodpecker, Hawfinch, Gray Wagtail, Bullfinch, Great
Spotted Woodpecker, and more.
Happy New Year to all.
= Michael