Anna Coles and I had a nice walk through the Fill late evening yesterday.

Short version:
red-winged blackbird
robin
killdeer - 4, at main pond
swallow (we think 3 kinds - barn, cliff, violet-green)
multiple murders of crows
1 bald eagle
3 song sparrow
2 house finch
4-5 gold finch
2 wren (heard but not seen, so not sure which kind - marsh wren best bet?)
1 quail
mallards (of course)
2 cinnamon teal
waterfowl that I can't remember - Anna?
canadian geese
15-20 highschool kids
1 dumb brown rabbit

Long version:

Spotted red-winged blackbirds, starlings, and robins (some of those sneaky
robins kept pretending to be other birds - naught of them!), killdeer, swallows
(3 varieties, we think - barn, cliff, and violet-green) and canadian geese.
Saw one pheasant, heard a few others. Watched crows heading back to Foster
Island, and another group harassing a bunch of starlings (although, as we
discussed then, we don't know who started it, the starlings or the crows!).
When we first parked in the gravel parking lot, I spotted a bald eagle landing
in one of the two 'bare' trees by the water's edge (they're the two trees with
the least amount of leaves, on the shoreline). It stayed there all evening,
and only left after we'd worked our way around and had a good look at it.
What a sight, watching it fly away from us across the Cut. Definitely a
mature eagle, with both head and tail clean white. A perky sparrow-type bird
teased us all evening, Anna id'd as song sparrow - what songs he was singing!
What a voice. Competing for singer of the evening was the house finch. Also
spotted goldfinches, but they were always in a hurry - dashing across our
field of vision and disappearing into the blackberries. On the "bark" trail
(which was turning into mulch by the "end") we ran across a quail. He was
quite content to peck amongst the bark, with us about 6-8 feet away (he was
quite camouflaged amongst the bark chips, we didn't spot him until we were
that close).

The wrens we heard were also quite the teases. Singing just out of sight
amongst the 'bullrushes', we tried several times to get a look at them, but
no go.

Saw 2 cinnamon teal on the main pond, along with a duck that I can't remember
the name of (we were quite lax in our note-taking last night!)

Found Stuart's work - wow! That's quite a pile of loosestrife. After studying
the plant (so that we can spot it from now on), we started noticing it
everywhere. I hadn't realized just exactly how incredibly insidious this
stuff is! Looks like we could really clear that pond, if we all got down there
for 3 or 4 evenings.

Spotted the garry oak plantations. Can't really see how it helps the seedlings
to chop down all the weeds outside their little chicken-wire cages, but leave
the weeds/grasses knee high inside the cages! Spotted one leaf out of all the
cages. Good news, perhaps, that they're not thriving?

On our way out, we saw a bunch of high school kids 'hanging out' in the
parking lot. Two girls were making a foray into the bushes as we passed by.
Perhaps another way to combat the loosestrife, eh, Stuart? :)

Driving out, we passed a rabbit. (Here's where I break down and say "awwww!
it wuz sooo cuuuute! widdle fuzzy bunny! although not so widdle, actually)
It was either very brave and foolhardy, or very dumb (and lucky to be still
alive), as it sat in the middle of the road, and did not move even as we drove
alongside it (very slowly, for fear of it darting under my tires). I saw it
leisurely hop off the road only after a very large truck stopped and revved
its engine at it a few times.

I'm torn on the issue of those barked and gravel paths. It did make it a lot
easier to see a variety of areas, and Anna and I didn't have to leave the path
to see what we wanted to see (therefore not disturbing any more plant life!),
but it was quite a shock to come upon this wide dry path where I had previously
mucked through.

Susan Collicott
Seattle, WA
camel at serv.net