Saturday morning my first two yard birds, not counting the ever present
House Finches, were a Bewick's Wren and a female Anna's Hummingbird. I
thought that was pretty cool. The Anna's has hung around my plum tree and
feeder ever since. I haven't had a hummer since spring although I keep
cleaning and refilling religiously. Maybe she'll hang around for more than
the weekend.

Down at the locks the Goldeneye was still there in the same area, diving. A
rich brown head with no collar, the head and bill shape looked like a common
with a bright yellow eye, the white patch looked even more pronounced, the
body mottled gray and white with no discernible features. A lone Western
Grebe was floating around the spillway area. None of the gates were open, so
the only water flow came from the fish ladder. The flow forced the grebe to
the eddies along the north wall and when it got tired of floating in circles
it would swim across the canal and float back, all without raising its head
from its back I forgot to mention the Kingfishers, there have been at least
three visible and audible the last month or so. I've yet to pinpoint the
nest, but I'm fairly sure it's between the locks boundary and the railroad
bridge on the north bank. There were also two Anna's in the gardens, one
heard only in the nursery near the Ballard entrance, another female feeding
on the fuschias just north of the admin building. Thanks to the Seattle
Fuschia Society for providing and maintaining the natural hummingbird
feeders.

Cheers
Cliff Drake
Ballard-Seattle, WA
mailto:cdrake at zipcon.net

The following is a probably off topic dream I had last night, but I thought
it was pretty funny. Read at your own risk.

I was walking through Los Angeles with my binoculars when I saw several
brown pelicans, soon I saw ravens and many other exotic real and imagined
birds. Martha Jordan drove by with two trumpeter swans in her back seat,
heading for Iowa, except they were wood storks, not swans. The punch line
came when I left the area and asked where I was. I was told I was at the
"Ronald Reagan Center for the Environment".

Well, it was only a dream...