Tweets -

Things I saw at the Fill this weekend ...

On the east shoreline, flotillas of:
-Northern Shoveler
-Mallard
-Coot
-American Wigeon
-Pie-billed Grebe

On the main pond:
-Northern Shoveler (1m, 2f)
-Green-winged Teal (2m, 2f)
-Mallard
-Canada Geese (the local injured coalition)

Around the Fill:
-Northern Shrike
-Robin (only a few - where are the hundreds of them that are usually
here?)
-Red-winged Blackbirds (gathering in the dead trees at SE corner)
-Short-eared Owl
-Northern Harrier

In/around the blackberries near Stuart's feeding spot:
-Fox Sparrow
-Song Sparrow
-Dark-eyed Junco
-Bushtits (the usual 40)


The Northern Shrike gave me some *incredible* views of itself. It sat on
a nearby perch for quite a while, preening and spreading its wings. It
flew head on at me, and then it ... well, I guess I'd call it
'backpedalled' ... it drew itself up out of head-on flight, presenting its
belly and feet at me, spread its tail feather, and 'hovered' there for a
few seconds (I know, it wasn't really hovering, but what do you call
that?). Then it slid off to the side and perched on one of our Loosestrife
piles for a while, stooped on something in the grass, and then zoomed off
past the south end of the Main Pond. Just a gorgeous bird, in the
noonday sun and crisp cold air.

Only spotted 4 humans in the Fill all weekend. Nobody else was out in the
fog on Saturday morning. I have to say, it was an incredible morning.
Birds appearing out of the mist, calls and fluttering noises echoing
across the Fill, and the cold moist air really felt like winter air. I
saw the owl and harrier late morning, when the mist had burned off a bit.

Susan Collicott
camel at serv.net
Seattle, WA