Marymoor Bird Blog

Friends of Marymoor Park

Recent Bird Sightings

Report for December 5, 2024 Birding at Marymoor

A frosty and foggy start to our morning, but that cleared pretty well by about 9:00, leaving us with gorgeous weather. There were, however, very noticeably fewer birds this week than in either of the past two weeks.

Highlights:

Ducks - 9 species
Horned Grebe - A late scan of the lake confirmed a Horned Grebe that we thought we might have had from the Lake Platform. First in 8 weeks.
Falcon - One distant bird was likely a Merlin
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER - One at the Pea Patch; only our 5th December Orange-crowned ever
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5-6 birds; never common by December

Not a long list of highlights, but we did have most of the regular Winter birds. A PILEATED WOODPECKER that flew past the Lake Platform during my late scan of the lake was our 4th woodpecker species for the day (missing only sapsucker from the likely woodpeckers). And except for Northern Shrike, we had all of the expected passerines.

No sign of last week's Mountain Chickadee.

Misses today included Green-winged Teal, American Coot, Killdeer, Ring-billed Gull, Cooper's Hawk, and Northern Shrike.

For the day, 55 species.

= Michael Hobbs

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:

Eleven species of duck - Though three of these were only during my late scan of the lake: Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, and Green-winged Teal
Common Goldeneye - Only some high flybys around 7:30 a.m. First of Fall (FOF)
American Coot - Five near the cabana - our first in 4 weeks!
Short-billed Gull - Maybe 200!
Cooper's Hawk - At least 1 adult and 2 different juveniles, but even more sightings. One of the juvies looked especially wet and unhappy, and then was mobbed by crows. A miserable morning
Pileated Woodpecker - One gave nice close looks in the Dog Area during the rain
Northern Shrike - One in the East Meadow
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE - One south of the mansion, west of the stage, at the fringe of a large group of "littles". First of Year (FOY)
Varied Thrush - Male at the south end of the East Meadow
Western Meadowlark - One in the East Meadow; was flushed by one of the juvie Cooper's Hawks

This is just the 3rd sighting that I know of for MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE from Marymoor Park. The previous two were in late October, 2004. (A 2009 report of MOCH was later determined to be an aberrant-plumaged BCCH). Neither of those earlier sightings was on a Marymoor Survey, and this is a new park bird for me!

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

Mountain Chickadee. Photo by Mason Flint

Report for November 21, 2024 Birding at Marymoor

It was a very unusual day - the weather was quite nice with temps in the 40s, no wind, no precipitation, and pretty good light, and we did the bird survey as always. But we spent at least as much attention on the devastation that the bomb cyclone brought to the park; dozens of huge snags and mature trees either snapped off or uprooted, large branches down everywhere; downed twigs covering all of the ground.

Highlights:

Trumpeter Swan - THIRTEEN in three groups flying south, silent. They did look very long necked
Northern Shoveler - Two with a small flock of Mallards flying north - First of Fall (FOF)
Gadwall - A long line of ducks seen from the Lake Platform turned out to be 53 Gadwall, ~10 American Wigeon, and 2 Green-winged Teal. A High Count for Gadwall for the survey
Cooper's Hawk - Nice adult flew across the slough, calling, then perched for us to admire
Four Woodpecker Day - Missing sapsucker. Except for Northern Flicker and one glimpse of a Downy, all woodpeckers were heard-only
Merlin - Seen on the long dock during my late scan of the lake
Northern Shrike - Juvenile seen a couple of times on the far side of the slough; unusual spot for shrike
Golden-crowned Kinglet - Continue to be especially numerous and widespread and visible; Ruby-crowns also common, but 1/3 as many?
Varied Thrush - Mason saw one near the mansion
Pine Siskin - somewhere between 75 and 500, but probably 100 is a rough estimate
Townsend's Warbler - One NE of the mansion

Pre-dawn, it was strange to look out at Lake Sammamish and see virtually no lights anywhere. A couple of houses had generators, but the whole lake seemed to be without power.

Two of the large trees supporting the heronry have blown down. A few GREAT BLUE HERONS were sitting (claiming?) nests in other trees, and one was in the next-nearest best tree where I expect nests to be built in spring.

Pretty much every tall snag on the far side of the slough has come down, including the ones that Purple Martins nested in for the last couple of years. The Big Cottonwood Forest lost many mature trees. Both the Douglas Fir grove NE of the mansion and the Aspen grove across Pea Patch Rd. had several downed trees. Clean up will take weeks.

Misses today included American Coot, Killdeer, Bushtit, and American Goldfinch.

For the day, 59 species, including a Barn/Short-eared Owl seen by Eric pre-dawn over at the model airplane field.

= Michael Hobbs

Lake Sammamish with a massive power outage. I presume the few houses with lights have generators. Photo by Michael Hobbs

The large trees lost from the heronry had many nests. Photo by Michael Hobbs

Report for November 14, 2024 Birding at Marymoor

Our walk this morning was blissfully free of interruption by bird sightings. Except for Kinglets which were numerous and widespread. Luckily, we were also almost completely free of precipitation, with only a little mist and mizzle until about 10:30, when we had some drizzle. The real rains came on my way home.

Highlights:

Peregrine Falcon - Quick flyby at the mansion - First of Year (FOY)
California Scrub-Jay - Continue north of the maintenance facility near the east entrance to the park
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Very common and widespread
Golden-crowned Kinglet - At least twice as numerous as RCKI, and at least as widespread

We did have SEVEN SPECIES OF DUCK, but that totaled a mere 25 birds, half of which were MALLARDS. There was a lone AMERICAN WIGEON, about 5-6 GREEN-WINGED TEAL, one RING-NECKED DUCK and two BUFFLEHEAD in the slough, and two each of COMMON and HOODED MERGANSER.

Other highlights were some good conversations and temps right around 50 all morning long, chilly with the breeze but not bad.

Misses today included: Gadwall, American Coot, Killdeer, Cooper's Hawk, Northern Shrike, Bushtit, Marsh Wren, American Goldfinch, and Lincoln's Sparrow. And super-surprising, we had only a tiny heard-only flock of CACKLING GEESE at about 7:30, with none landing in the park. This, after ~2000 on recent Thursdays.

For the day, we managed to eke out 51 species, and with notably low numbers of almost all of those. By my numbers, we had 26 species with fewer than 5 individuals, and another 10 with 6-10 individuals. Only AMERICAN CROW (75) and PINE SISKIN (100?) were over 50 individuals. Median 5, mean of fewer than 10. Not a very exciting day.

= Michael Hobbs

Report for November 7, 2024 Birding at Marymoor

It was a frosty 32 degrees when we started, with bright sunshine, but also fog. Most of the morning, we couldn't really look to the South at all because of the very bright sun-illuminated fog. But when facing the other way, it was gorgeous. The fog kept the day cold for quite a while, but it finally warmed to 50 degrees!

Highlights:

Trumpeter Swan - Eight flying SW, calling. Absolutely stunning in the morning sun as they flew past the fall color trees
Northern Saw-whet Owl - The early morning crew heard two, and saw an owl that might have been Saw-whet but seemed to look more like Western Screech
Red-breasted Sapsucker - One at the Rowing Club for the 2nd straight week
Merlin - One hunting near the Dog Area portapotties
Northern Shrike - Seen just east of the Viewing Mound, and later, north of Fields 7-8-9. First of Fall (FOF)
California Scrub-Jay - Two (FOF)
Varied Thrush - Heard a few times near the mansion just after 7:00 (FOF)
Townsend's Warbler - Three seen

The trees were often filled with mixed birds; KINGLETS were especially numerous and widespread today, especially GOLDEN-CROWNED.

Following a tip from Eric Crockett, we ventured near the East Entrance and found two CALIFORNIA SCRUB-JAYS in the large oak trees there. He has seen them at that location multiple times in the last month.

A late scan of the lake, once the fog had cleared, showed 10 BUFFLEHEAD that flew past the Lake Platform (FOF), and 15+ WESTERN GREBE well out on the lake.

Along the slough, and at the lake, we watched four RIVER OTTERS, our first since March.

Misses today included Common Merganser, American Coot, Killdeer, California Gull, Red-tailed Hawk, and American Goldfinch. All of those were seen last week and were therefore real surprise misses.

For the day, 60 species.

= Michael Hobbs

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