Subject: When to say Wow
Date: May 15 02:25:50 1997
From: "Michael Hobbs" - MJCT_Hobbs at msn.com


I was looking for KMart today, and when I got to the Lake Hills Greenbelt, I
realized that KMart is on 148th, and I was driving down 156th. So I did the
natural thing and walked the Greenbelt instead, and I was rewarded with two
magnificant moments.

First, I stopped at the man-made pond with the man-made duck nesting island
which has such steep sloping sides that no duck will ever nest on it, but I
digress. Someone has unwisely mowed a path to the shore of this pond, and
naturally, I walked down it. The male Red-winged Blackbird immediately flew
to a branch behind my head and incessantly sounded his alarm. The female
exploded from her nest and flew off to a nearby bush. And then, a Virginia
Rail started calling an alarm? call in answer to every note from the
blackbird. I watched the rail run to the edge of the cat-tails, and fly the
10 feet to the other side of the pond. For the next several MINUTES, I
watched the Virginia Rail from a distance of about 25 feet. The rail called
every in between each call from the blackbird, and spent the rest of the time
scurrying back and forth along the shore jabbing its beak into the water at
bugs. (At least, I presume at bugs). I left, eventually, being concerned for
the blackbirds, and actually getting tired of looking at the rail. After all,
this was the second phenominal look at a Virginia Rail that I'd had since
yesterday morning (when I watched a mother and baby at Foster Island at
incrredibly close range from the raised platform).

I continued through the Greenbelt, discovering my first Black-headed Grosbeak
of the season, and discovering that you can walk all the way to KMart, which I
did.

On my way back, I saw a male Bullock's Oriole, and after a few seconds the
female, in a Doug Fir next to the Lake Hills library. But by the time I got
close, they flew to the other side of the trees. So I continued to the road,
and around into the front parking lot of the library, to see if I could see
them again. I stood in the parking lot, looking across the stream at the
grove of trees, trying to find a spot of orange, or a moving leaf, or any sign
of Bullock's. Nothing. I slowly counted to 50, to be sure I wasn't being
impatient. Nothing. I took a step backwards, and heard a loud Peek. Loud.
CLOSE. I looked up. Two feet above where my head had been sat the male
Oriole. He hopped about there for quite a while, moved to the next tree, then
the next. I looked at him from head to tail, one part at a time with my 10x
binos. Oh, for a camera! After several minutes, he flew off across the
street. I followed after him, and met up with the female as well, in the
field south of the Little League diamond. I got some good looks at her, but
he seemed to be trying to distract me, by flying from perch to perch, and
around the field, and back nearby. Gorgeous birds.


== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== MJCT_Hobbs at msn.com