A great 1 1/2 hours this morning, followed by another 1 1/2 hours of NOTHING.
Gorgeous sunrise, and all the birds seemed to come out for it. Then they all
disappeared.

Some of the highlights were:

Green Heron 1 at the weir
Green-winged Teal ? Pretty sure, 7 at lake
Spotted Sandpiper 1 at the weir
Belted Kingfisher Female
Vaux's Swift 1 still here
Warbling Vireo 2 or 3, VERY bright
Orange-crowned Warbler 2, I think - very pretty
Black-throated Gray Wblr 1 very nice male
Common Yellowthroat Probably 50+, adults & immys
Lincoln's Sparrow 2 along the slough
Golden-crowned Sparrow First for fall - 1 bird

In the slough, just north of the new "footbridge", I spotted a Great Blue Heron
standing in the water with what looked like a blue rope sticking out of its
mouth. With my binoculars up, I could see that it had caught one of those
blue-striped garter snakes. The GBH had swallowed some of the snake, but the
rest just wouldn't go down. The heron was swallowing, and the snake was
getting stretched taut. After a while, the GBH spit out what turned out to be
the tail end of the snake. The head end was still very much alive -- the snake
was biting the heron on the back of the neck! After the GBH spit out the tail,
the snake hung there, clinging to the neck, about half way between the head and
the shoulders. The snake was as long as the GBH was tall. The heron grabbed
the snake in the middle and tugged. The snake wouldn't let go. The heron
jumped up and down, and flapped its wings, etc. Finally, the snake released.
Quickly, the heron grabbed the head of the snake and squeezed. The snake
curled, coiled, twisted, ...and went limp. After working it with its bill for
a while longer, the heron finally swallowed the snake head first. Heron 2,
Snake 1.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== hummer at isomedia.com