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Bird Sightings Week 48
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Rarities for Week 48:
| Brant | 26-Nov-08 | With Cacklers, 26-Nov and 05-Dec |
| Brant | 02-Dec-09 | With Cacklers in NE corner, 02-Dec, 03-Dec, 17-Dec |
| Redhead | 27-Nov-97 | |
| Dunlin | 30-Nov-09 | |
| Franklin's Gull | 27-Nov-13 | Juvenile with large flock of Mew Gulls |
| Mountain Chickadee | 27-Nov-24 | South of the mansion. Seen through 2-Dec-24 |
| Bohemian Waxwing | 01-Dec-16 | Two with robins, SE edge of East Meadow |
| Swamp Sparrow | 26-Nov-10 | Photographed |
| Swamp Sparrow | 19-Nov-18 | Below Viewing Mound, photographs |
Report for November 27, 2024 Birding at Marymoor
| Matt had to work today, and that meant he got to miss the most serious rain we've had during the survey in a long time. From about 8:00 - 8:45, it rained. Not drizzle or light rain, but also not torrents/deluges. Just rain. Much of the rest of the morning had mizzle and drizzle, though we did have a good hour or more of sunshine. So weirdly variable weather, and not so weirdly variable birdiness. Highlights:
The MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE was at the edge of a large group of birds near the mansion. The ground there is absolutely covered in downed twigs, branches, leaves, and cones that fell during the wind storm. There were BLACK-CAPPED and CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES, RUBY-CROWNED and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, PINE SISKINS, and DARK-EYED JUNCOS feeding on the ground. A BROWN CREEPER was seen as low as 3 inches off the ground at the base of a tree. Dozens of very active birds in all, and then Emily spotted the Mountain Chickadee which was also dropping from a branch to the ground and returning to the tree about 15 feet away from us! Misses today included KILLDEER, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. For the day, 63 species! = Michael Hobbs |
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Report for November 30, 2023 Birding at Marymoor
| Cloudy and windless, temps just above freezing to start. The rain held off, but we often experience what we had today: forecast of an imminent big storm and the birding rather poor. You'd think they'd be frantically active before the deluge, but no; maybe they're moving to better locations to weather the storm? Some notable sightings today, but many of them extremely fleeting. Highlights:
For the day, 51 species. = Michael Hobbs |
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Report for December 1, 2022 Birding at Marymoor
| We started out at 32 degrees and snowing, but the morning's weather quickly improved to above-freezing with occasional blue sky patches. It was windless, but everything was quite gray for most of the morning. The park has a crust of frozen snow on the ground, so birding by ear was hampered by the constant crunch-crunch-crunch of our feet and the swish-swish of our coats and snow pants.
All in all, it was quite pleasant and quite birdy. The only downside was that the vast majority of those many birds were just American Robins, American Crows, and Dark-eyed Juncos. Surprises were few but nice. But nothing really rare; very similar to last week.
Highlights:
We had four RIVER OTTERS in the slough.
Misses today (species seen in at least half of previous years during Week 48, but not today): Short-billed Gull, Ring-Billed Gull (though we had one 2nd-winter gull that was probably RBGU), Bushtit, Marsh Wren, Pine Siskin, and Lincoln's Sparrow.
For the day, 51 species.
= Michael Hobbs
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Report for December 2, 2021 Birding at Marymoor
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We were supposed to get a break from the rain by 8 or by 9 or by 10 according to various hourly weather forecasts, but that never happened. We had on-and-off drizzle all morning. For the first hour-and-a-half, the world was dominated by AMERICAN ROBINS on every tree and bush. Otherwise, birds were a bit hard to come up with, but small surprises kept popping up.
Highlights:
We had at least 1 Downy, a heard-only Hairy east of the East Meadow and one seen from the Rowing Club dock, and a handful of Northern Flickers, to give us a FIVE WOODPECKER DAY.
Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Northern Shrike, Bushtit, Pine Siskin (might have heard one), American Goldfinch (might have heard one or two), and Lincoln’s Sparrow.
We wished Ruth Godding a Happy 75th Birthday today, in absentia since she just moved to Scotland. We all miss her presence after 10 years of Marymoor surveys together.
Next week starts the seven weeks of 8:00 a.m. starts, the darkest eighth of the year. Also quite likely the coldest and wettest. But these are good weeks for waterfowl, Dunlin, loons, owls, shrike, Varied Thrush, etc. All one needs are sweaters, full rain gear, tall rubber boots, gloves, Li’l Hotties, and a touch of intrepid spirit.
= Michael Hobbs
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Report for November 29, 2018 Birding at Marymoor
| We had views of Venus and the moon in the early pre-dawn, but then the fog rolled in from about 7am-9am, before rising, and then clearing. More overcast moved in later in the morning, but we never had wind or precipitation, and we did have birds! Many of our common winter birds seemed especially numerous, and gave us some really fantastic looks. Best Bird of the day was a SWAMP SPARROW that really showed off below the Viewing Mound.
Highlights:
Mound Misses today included Ring-necked Duck, mergansers, Ring-billed Gull (probable, but fog-obscured), Pine Siskin. This winter is unusual. Duck numbers, both of species and of individuals, are remarkably low. Diving ducks have been almost completely absent. Even adding in a late scan of the whole north end of the lake today, I could only find about 2 dozen BUFFLEHEAD and 2 COMMON GOLDENEYE. We’ve had no more than 4 Ring-necked Ducks on any day, no Scaup at all, and only 1-2 mergansers at most each week. Only twice have we had a Hooded Merganser since the end of August. Besides Scaup, we’ve also had no Swans, Greater White-fronted Geeese, Ruddy Duck, large gulls besides GWGU, no Kestrel, Raven, Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, Red Crossbill, or Pine Siskin. And we’ve only had Northern Shoveler once (mid-October), one Short-eared Owl (mid October), one Northern Saw-whet Owl (mid-October), one flock of Evening Grosbeak (late September), one White-throated Sparrow (in early October), and one Townsend’s Warbler (early November). An ebird report dated 2018-11-25 from Hank Heiberg includes photos of a BRANT with Cackling Geese, and a PALM WARBLER in the Pea Patch. The later is a new bird for Marymoor Park!!! We were not able to find either species today. For today, we ended up with 57 species. == Michael Hobbs |
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Report for November 30, 2017 Birding at Marymoor
| It was decidedly wet today, with steady rain from before sunrise through the end of the main loop for us. Dark and wet, but not TOO cold, and not windy. Not birdy either. About half the group called it a day after the main loop, at which point the rain eased up and we picked up several more species. A few birds of interest, but not many good views.
Highlights:
Misses included Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Rock Pigeon, Downy Woodpecker, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird, all of which we’ve had this week of the year in at least 12 of the last 23 years. Anna’s Hummingbirds didn’t show up at Marymoor until 2004, but we’ve had them 7 of the previous 13 years, also missing them today. Yesterday, I had a RED CROSSBILL near the mansion, first for the year at Marymoor. For the day, 45 species. My hands are still cold. == Michael Hobbs |
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Report for December 1, 2016 Birding at Marymoor
| It was our coldest morning of the winter yet – there was even a touch of frost. November was notably warm, but at least there’s some hint of winter this month :) Mostly a thin overcast, some sun, a brief bit of drizzle. Pretty nice. And the birding was really good.
Highlights: American Wigeon Heard pre-dawn, then had a flock fly out Our only previous confirmed sighting of BOHEMIAN WAXWING at Marymoor was a single bird hanging out with Cedar Waxwings from late-February through early April, 2012. Today, we had very good looks at two along the east edge of the southern tip of the East Meadow. They were feeding on berries with American Robins, and were sticking close to each other. It was a really nice day, with lots of good looks at birds, and some nice surprises. For the day, 58 species. == Michael Hobbs |
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Report for November 30, 2015 Birding at Marymoor
| I calculate the week of the year differently than, say, Microsoft Excel. Their calculation tells you which row on the year's calendar you are on. This means that, if the year starts on a Saturday, Week 1 has only 1 day. For the purposes of trying to figure out seasonality of birds based on the weeks they have appeared, their calculation isn't useful. With my method, the first seven days of the year are Week 1, the second seven days are Week 2, and so on.
I relate this, because we were in danger of missing Week 48 entirely this year. The year started on a Thursday. Since we birded the Wednesday before Thanksgiving instead of doing our usual Thursday walk, there would have been no survey for the week starting Thanksgiving. I couldn't have that, so I headed down to Marymoor early on Monday, November 30. As it turns out, Ollie & Grace went down on the 29th too, so we have pretty good coverage for Week 48 after all. From the photos, it looks like Sunday the 29th was a nice, warmish, sunny day. Monday the 30th, however, was frigid. It was a balmy 23 degrees at 7:00 a.m. !!! The frost was so thick that it looked almost as if it had snowed. It took its time warming up, too, but it was a pretty nice day in the end. Highlights: Greater White-fronted Goose At least 1 with Cacklers I also had 2 COYOTE, one of which chased off some of the geese. Grace & Ollie had SHORT-EARED OWL and the NORTHERN SHRIKE, as well as a few more species I didn't have, so my list was 52, and the week's list was closer to 58. |
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Report for November 26, 2014 Birding at Marymoor
| Following yesterday’s rain and last night’s stiff winds, I was surprised at how pleasant the weather was this morning. The wind died down right around sunrise, and we had clouds, a few patches of blue skies, and tropical temperatures: 57-60 degrees in the last week in November! It wasn’t terribly birdy, however.
Highlights: Cackling Goose 800-1000 came in at sunrise, but didn’t land That’s about it for highlights. Misses for the day included Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Wilson’s Snipe, Northern Shrike, Bushtit, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, and American Goldfinch. Even though the CACKLING GEESE never landed (well, a few may have lit for a minute or two before exploding back into the air), it’s quite a sight to see so many birds flying around. The huge flock fragmented into many small flocks. Many times during the morning, lines of geese (15-50) would pass overhead. There seemed no consensus as to destination. It was very nice to see the gorgeous male AMERICAN KESTREL, which has been oft-photographed by others in the last few weeks, but never seen on our Thursday surveys until today. I did catch a glimpse of the partially leucistic GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET south of the windmill. After Marymoor, I headed down to LAKE SAMMAMISH STATE PARK to try for the American White Pelican. No luck with that, but in the hour or so I was down there, I did see 35 species. What surprised me most was that EIGHT of those were species not seen at Marymoor this morning: Northern Shoveler, Common Goldeneye, Common Loon, Western Grebe, California Gull, Herring Gull, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and American Goldfinch. So, for the day, 52 species at Marymoor. |
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Report for November 27, 2013 Birding at Marymoor
| This weather is almost scary, it’s so nice. It was a bit chilly, and there was some ground fog, predawn. But certainly by about 8:30, it was warming up under partly cloudy skies showing a lot of blue. (You should have seen the moon and Jupiter in the wee hours, and Mt. Rainier at sunrise...) And we had some exciting birds to go with the delightful weather.
Right at 7:30, a large group of MEW GULLS (several hundred) landed on the grass soccer fields. We spent at least 10 minutes fruitlessly looking through them for Ring-billed or California, and only turned up some GLAUCOUS-WINGS and “Olympic” gulls. I gave up and started the stroll to the river, when I heard shouting back at the parking lot. Stan Wood had spotted a smaller gull. We managed to get close enough for some pretty good looks, and were amazed to find it was a juvenile FRANKLIN’S GULL. Ollie got some photos, which will be on the blog in a few days. This is just the third time we’ve had Franklin’s Gull at Marymoor, and this was by far our best look. The last time we had a Franklin’s was NOVEMBER 24, 2010 – a very similar date! The other sighting was in late May quite a few years ago. For me, personally, this was my first Franklin's Gull at Marymoor, my 209th species for the park for my personal list. If anyone want to try and chase the Franklin’s Gull, I’d suggest being there from 7:30 to 8:30 tomorrow or Friday. The Mew Gull flocks fly in just around sunrise, and often (but by no means always) land on the grass soccer fields for breakfast. They typically leave within an hour of arrival. Other highlights: SNOW GOOSE Two flew over the Viewing Mound about 7:15 It was so warm, we heard PACIFIC TREE FROG, and saw a GARTER SNAKE – our first snake sighting ever for November-February. For the day, 55 species. == Michael Hobbs |
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Report for November 29, 2012 Birding at Marymoor
| Thank goodness the wind died down at sunrise, for there was horizontal rain at times before that. We did get rained on, at times, but without the wind it wasn’t too bad. Temps around 50 degrees also tempered the discomfort. And we had long stretches without rain at all. Not a bad morning, weatherwise, considering what we could have had. For birds, it was a good day for ducks and geese, and we managed to find most of the other usual stuff.
In an attempt to catch the geese and gulls before they flew off, we ended up pulling a u-turn and doing the walk in reverse. Best bird was a BARN OWL that we accidentally flushed out of Snag Row while walking between the Pea Patch and the grass soccer fields. Best bird for Matt was a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL that he heard tooting near the mansion at 5 a.m. Other highlights: Greater White-fronted Goose Four with huge flock of Cacklers For the day, I think we came up with 59 species total. == Michael Hobbs |
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 Hooded Mergansers at the Rowing Club, 2012-11-28. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Pileated Woodpecker, 2012-11-28. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Pied-billed Grebe, 2012-11-28. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Greater White-fronted Geese with Cackling Geese, 2012-11-28. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 American Goldfinch, 2012-11-28. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Leucistic House FInch, 2012-11-21. Photo by Lillian Reis |
Report for December 1, 2011 Birding at Marymoor
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The sighting of the day was fog, as in, that's mostly what we sighted. It didn't lift, really at all, until we got to the Rowing Club. Otherwise, things weren't too bad - no rain, no wind, not too cold. But gray, gray, gray, gray, and fairly birdless. |
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 Pine Siskins in flight, showing their distinctive wing stripe. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Golden-crowned Sparrow. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Golden-crowned Kinglet. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 "Barbs and toenails". Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Lincoln's Sparrow - photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Lincoln's Sparrow. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Cackling Geese in the fog. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
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 Steller's Jay on the park office. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Muskrat at the Rowing Club north pond. Photo by Dasha Gudalewicz |
 Male Hooded Merganser, 2011-11-25. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Red-naped Sapsucker, 2011-11-25. Photo by Darrel DeNune |
 Possible Herring Gull x Glaucous-winged Gull, 2011-11-25. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
Report for December 2, 2010 Birding at Marymoor
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We swam through rather thick fog for much of the morning. As we walked the slough, it was pretty well impossible to see birds on the far shore. At the lake we couldn't see beyond the docks. But by the time we got to the East Meadow, the sun was shining and the skies were blue. Not too cold. Not a bad day, even if it was quiet at times. |
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 Song Sparrow. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Hairy Woodpecker. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Witch Hazel |
 Adult Greater White-fronted Goose with Cackling Geese |
 About 1/3 of the Cackling Geese on two softball fields |
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 Moss on the boardwalk |
 Dark-eyed Junco, 2010-11-26. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Swamp Sparrow, 2010-11-26. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
 Swamp Sparrow again. It was in about the same location on 2010-11-26 as it had been on 2010-11-18. Photo by Ollie Oliver |
Report for November 30, 2009
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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. 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 |
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"Slate-colored" Dark-eyed Junco |
Report for November 26, 2008
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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 At the Rowing Club we had the 3 RIVER OTTERS again. For the day, 56 species. == Michael |
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Report for November 29, 2007
| It was a bit chilly, but the threatened showers didn't happen, and the fog burned off fairly quickly. It turned out to be a nice morning to be out, even if the birds were a bit quiet.
We had four species of goose from the parking lot before we even got started. There were 300-500 CACKLING, at least one GREATER WHITE-FRONTED, and then in a flyby of CANADAs, we had a lone juvenile SNOW GOOSE. The juvenile Tundra Swan, present the last two visits, was not seen, but a dog person said it had been there yesterday. Besides the 4 geese, it was a good day for ducks, with 8 species, including 14 NORTHERN SHOVELER at the Rowing Club, at least 6 HOODED MERGANSER, a lone LESSER SCAUP, and a GADWALL. For some reason, Gadwall have become quite uncommon at Marymoor. The best bird of the day was a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW with juncos at the Art Barn and maintenance building northeast of the mansion. That was our first WTSP of 2007, and one of the rare times we've seen one that wasn't with Golden-crowned Sparrows. Other Highlights: Cooper's Hawk Both and adult and a juvenile Merlin Brief view of bird flying north chased by a crow Hairy Woodpecker One on the far side of the slough at the lake platform Fox Sparrow Several nice looks Townsend's Warbler One NE of mansion Pine Siskin 100+ For the day, 55 species. == Michael |
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Bird Sightings Week 48
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