Hi,
Between the cruising adult BALD eagle and the gun shots going off to start
a sailboat race just a bit beyond the fishing pier, sparse numbers of
birds were on the water. The eagle decided to lazy-it and grabbed half a
carcass of dead salmon off the beach. Salmon bodies are more common this
time of year from having spawned up one of the little creeks and then
dying/washing back down stream to feed something else!

There were two BELTED kingfishers amongst the moored boats in the marina;
both were males and one is probably the first year male seen earlier in
the season. And finally, our first PIED-BILLED grebe is back for the
winter; this one was at the south end of the marina near Anthony's Home
Port yummy restaurant.

The day was quite chilly and wintry with extensive overcast till after
3PM. The southwest sky started clearing with only a few billow-type
clouds, and the beautiful golden light began spreading across the water
until the entire Sound south of the marina was shimmering. I could see
the colorful spinnaker sails backlit and ethereal. For the beauty of this
view, I forgave them for their race temporarily disturbing the birds.
(The eagle was probably the main disturbance anyway.)

All is relatively right with the Universe (and with all the totally
fabulous laws of physics within the VAST space-time continuum and
evolution and life's processes that GOD put in place for US to discover
and catalogue and understand within a framework of diligent searching and
TESTING and determined truth-seeking and then saying "Ah Hah!"...a perfect
prayer for acknowledging the infinite cleverness of the Creator.)

I couldn't resist and Cheers to all and......... nope, I'll not
acknowledge any cranky retorts to the last paragraph,

Maureen Ellis,PhD me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-