hello tweets.

i just couldn't stay away from the montlake fill today. i had
to check in with everyone there and my partner wanted to see
common snipes and american pipits, so i mistakenly thought i
would be able to find them in a few minutes.

neither the snipe nor the pipits were cooperative. although i
could clearly hear the pipits, i could not find them. we did,
however, see some other birds, including one peregrine falcon
that was finally harassed out of the beaver-tree by a gang of
hoodlums, er, crows. we also saw two merlins fly over, flirting
shamelessly with each other, and there now are at least four
barn swallows at the fill, also flirting. the three greater
white-fronted geese are still there, but almost all of the
many ducks that were seen last friday evening on the central
pond were gone tonight. i also saw a new canada goose family with
nine goslings. one of the goslings was acting strangely,
always lagging behind mom, dad and the rest of the bunch, and
so another canada goose attacked it, grabbing it by one leg
and knocking it onto the muddy earth. one of the parents rushed
in and knocked the adult attacker onto his back on the ground.
the gosling then wandered casually back to his family, with
the protective parent close behind.

i think this gosling is crow food.

i briefly entertained the thought of returning to the fill after
dark so i might hear the snipes at play. the key word in that
statement is "briefly."

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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