hello tweetsters,

i decided that my life is too short to let another sunny day go
by without properly appreciating it, so i packed up my binos
and snuck out the door and off to the montlake fill i went!
despite the fact that i was there for only an hour, i had a fine
time.

in fact, i had only been at the fill for a few minutes, when i saw
a large swallow zooming towards me, chattering gayly all the way.
yes, you all guessed it, i saw a barn swallow! my first one of the
year! i followed this bird with my binoculars as he zoomed away,
and watched him join up with a second, similarly-sized and shaped
bird that acted like another swallow (although i can't be positively
sure there really was more than one barn swallow because they were
mere specks in my binos by this time).

greatly pleased, i continued on my walk and sighted my "old friends"
from earlier, soggier days; the three white-fronted geese. they
were grazing on the lush grasses near the central pond for awhile,
then strolled to the pond and went for a leisurely swim. i watched
an adult bald eagle soar in lazy circles over the pond, the sun's
rays brightening the bird's plumage to a warm chocolate brown color.
a female harrier flew over and disappeared without even seeming to
see the eagle.

i checked on the mallard family and could only relocate three of
the original six ducklings and the father was nowhere to be seen.
the three ducklings swam up to my mud-encrusted boot and nibbled
at pieces of bread floating in the inch-deep water. this close
approach allowed me to see the tremendous variation
in the coloring and markings on these three little guys: after
studying them, i now can identify each individual duckling.

i ran into michael dosset 17 as i strolled towards bob's killdeer
nest, and we chatted briefly about birds, and watched the
american pipits as they fed on the shore of the nearby pond. the
pipits hang together in a very loose group and so it is difficult
to be certain how many there really are, but i would guess that
there are at least one dozen, and possibly as many as 15 american
pipits.

by the way, the killer geeese are still sitting on eggs, as i
discovered today when i went tromping around the back of the
central pond, so be careful!

and speaking of killer geese, i relocated the canada goose family
that i mislabeled yesterday as the "sons of killer geese." they
were by the boathouse and all all seven goslings were present and
accounted for. the proud parents paraded them back and forth in
front of the busy docks, dodging canoes and rowboats as they
taught their babies the fine art of begging for bread crumbs.

other notable sightings include one pair of common goldeneye that
i got really close to, nesting american robins (nest found yesterday
by myself and another tweeter pal), two mew gulls, and a pair of
nesting black-capped chickadees that have apparently taken over an
unfinished and abandoned flicker nesting cavity.i watched these
little guys cleaning wood pulp out of their new home, carrying it
away by the mouthfuls and dropping it.

despite only being at the montlake fill for an hour, i saw 48
species of birds there. as i walked along the burke-gilman trail
to my office, i heard a red-breasted nuthatch "anking" from the
trees next to winkenwerder hall, so today was a productive birding
day, with 49 species total!

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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