hello tweets.

the weather was absolutely glorious today at the montlake fill,
and the birds were wonderful, as always. i had been so busy this
week with several tasks that i was not able to spend much time
at the fill, until today, nor did i share with you what i saw
during those brief visits. today, i realized that the worry and
stress of the past ten days had sucked my soul dry, leaving
behind an enormous hollow space. there is no better balm for
the spirit than sunshine, birds and mud!

there were several special birds at the fill today. i had the
great good luck to watch a single vaux's swift spiral down from
its lofty heights to take a drink from the central pond. the
swift's wings are so long that they cut through the surface of the
green water with each wingbeat. finally, the swift plopped itself
onto the surface of the water, getting a quick sip of water
before momentum riccocheted it into the air. the swallows drank
water on the wing, too, but their movements resembled what i
imagine a skimmer would do. so, in short, swifts belly-flop while
swallows skim.

the central pond had other nice species, as well, including four
male blue-winged teal, one each male cinnamon and green-winged
teals. also seen were three male northern shovelers, two female
buffleheads, and several pair of mallard. at this point, i think
that the gadwall just might out-number the mallard. i also saw
three female yellow-headed blackbirds, one brightly-colored male
that loudly and repeatedly sang his strangled song, and i also
saw two more yellow-headed blackbirds that could be young males,
or maybe just very bright females. their body feathers are a
nice even chocolate-brown (like the feamles) but the yellow on
their faces and heads is more extensive than that seen in the
females. i didn't see any white wing markings in these two
especially bright female (?) YHBB, but one of these two bright
female (?) birds did have black around the eyes, just as the
male YHBB does. so that leads me to my question; do the male
yellow-headed blackbirds take two years to attain their adult
male plumage? or are the females much more variable than i
originally thought?

i also saw a female wood duck in the slough that runs along the
eastern side of the fill, bordered by cottonwood trees. i had
been creeping slowly through the bushes and startled her. she
came crashing down from somewhere and landed on a log, calling
loudly with her metallic whistle as i peered at her through
the leaves. i finally left as quietly as i could, hoping that i
hadn't frightened her away.

other neat-o birds seen at the fill today include one mourning
dove casually walking around near the "wedding rock," one male
brewer's blackbird walking around and feeding in shallow water of
"dry pond," one spotted sandpiper on the same pond, and a moulting
red-tailed hawk that soared over. a male common yellowthroat popped
into the open and chattered while i appreciated the best looks that
i have gotten of this species this year. a bewick's wren also
popped into plain view, and watched me gawk at him for a minute or
two. finally, i also had the great pleasure of hearing, and then
seeing, one pair of cedar waxwings that flew low over my head, their
bright yellow tailtips gleaming as if they'd been dipped into the
brightest sun. ah, i so love cedar waxwings!

many birds are starting to fledge now, too. i saw many newly-fledged
starlings (yawn), spot-breasted robins squeeking in their high-pitched
baby voices as they shadowed their parents, and a stub-tailed
red-winged blackbird almost crashed into my knee as i walked along
the gravel road running between the western side of the fill and the
playing fields. i spent a few minutes looking for the ten (or so)
ring-necked pheasant chicks that i first stumbled across last sunday,
without any luck (but i could hear them).

while i was at the fill, it seemed that i spent almost as much time
talking as i did birding. i ran into fred hoyt who was supervising
the dump trucks as they laid a new layer of gravel onto the pathways.
fred hoyt is the manager of the montlake fill, and he told me lots
of interesting news bits during our visit. i asked about the extensive
mowing of exotic blackberry bushes, and mentioned that i thought he
should use a quadrant system so the birds would still have ample cover
in other areas. fred said that all of the urban hort center people had
really wrestled with this very issue before deciding that the best
(non-pesticidal) way to kill blackberries was frequent and persistent
mowing, thereby dramatically reducing photosynthetic capacity.
eventually, within five to ten years, such mowing should kill these
invasive bushes. fred also talked about a new program that was just
started at the fill this week, if i remember correctly, involving the
newly-regrowing purple loosestrife. there is a beetle, genus Gallicaria,
that apparently feeds exclusively on purple loosestrife, and this beetle
is just now being introduced into the fill. this project had been
delayed until futher studies had been completed to be sure that this
introduced beetle would not cause greater problems in the area than it
was supposed to solve.

i also ran into connie sidles, and discussed organizing a purple-
loostrife-pulling-work-party for the tweets in the near future. i
hope that you all can save an hour or two out of your busy lives to
pull a few weeds at the fill!

i was at the fill for two hours, from 1230-230pm, and i saw 47 species
of birds. my bird list follows, for those who might be interested;

pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
canada goose
wood duck, 1 female
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal, 1 male
northern shoveler, 3 males
blue-winged teal, 6 males
cinnamon teal, 2 males and 1 feamle
bufflehead, 2 female
red-tailed hawk, 1, moulting several primaries
ring-necked pheasant
california quail
american coot
killdeer
spotted sandpiper, 1 in breeding plumage
glaucous-winged gull
rock dove
mourning dove, 1
vaux's swift, 1
anna's hummingbird
american crow
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
cliff swallow
barn swallow
black-capped chickadee
bushtit
bewick's wren
marsh wren
american robin
european starling
cedar waxwing, 2
yellow warbler
common yellowthroat
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
yellow-headed blackbird, 6
red-winged blackbird
brewer's blackbird, 1
brown-headed cowbird
american goldfinch
house finch
house (english) sparrow


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