Hey tweets, In all the years I've been birding, I have never yet gone to
the Fill and come home disappointed. One way or another, the Fill always
delivers. Yesterday was no exception. My husband and I were trying out our
new Pentax scope, a 21st wedding anniversary gift to ourselves. We set it
up to look out over the bay, toward the eagle tree. I focused on what I
thought was a good-sized flock of buffleheads, but instead it turned out to
be 6 male HOODED MERGANSERS displaying around two females. I've never seen
so many together at one time. The males were really working hard, too,
paddling around with their hoods poofed out just as far as they could go.
The females, naturally, paid little attention, except their hoods were
sticking way out too. After everyone paraded around for some time, they
decided to pack it in, so they all went fishing instead. We went looking
for more birds and found a common merganser and a sharpie, along with a
Brewer's blackbird and 17 other species. Altogether beautiful. - Connie,
Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com