This turned out to be a strange day. The forecast was for sunny skies, but it was drizzling in the morning. I decided not to travel far in case the rain increased, so I went back to Marymoor Park. By the time I got there, the rain had stopped, but it was still overcast. I hiked the nature trail, and logged about 15 species.
Great Blue Heron
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Flicker
Northern Flicker
Northern Flicker
Wood Ducks
Wood Duck
Downy Woodpecker
Wilson's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Osprey carrying a crab?
Anna's Hummingbird
Juvenile White-crowned Sparrow
There was a lot of commotion in one of the trees. Two juvenile Cedar Waxwings were demanding to be fed.
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwings
When I was at the end of the boardwalk, I heard a Virginia Rail, but could not locate it. Later that evening, I read a blog from the early morning Marymoor Park guided bird walk, and a Virginia Rail had been seen at the same location before I arrived.
The weather cleared after a few hours, and I decided to try another birding site that I had pre-programmed into my GPS: Crescent Lake. I followed the GPS directions and thought to myself that I would have never found this site without the GPS. I had been unplugging the GPS from the 12-volt auxiliary outlet in the car each time, as the rental car did not shut off the power to the auxiliary outlet when I stopped the engine. When I parked the car at Crescent Lake, I pulled out the GPS connector, and it came apart into several pieces! OMG! I tried to re-assemble the connector, but it didn't look right and wasn't sending power to the GPS unit. I wasn't sure where I was and didn't have any maps of the area. After a few minutes of mild panic, I remembered that the GPS had internal batteries, and when I turned it back on, there was enough power to get me to a highway before it shut off, and I was able to reach a store, buy some maps, and head back to the hotel. Whew!
Click here to continue on the trip to Skagit; 8/21/15