Hey tweets, Today was an inexpressably lovely day at the Fill. I hope you
all got a chance to get out and see some birds in this incredible weather.
Are we living in paradise, or what? I didn't make it to the Fill until the
afternoon, so I missed seeing a lot that I'm sure was skulking. But what I
did see more than made up for it: the yellow warbler that has been hanging
out in the willows on the main pond is still there; the warbling vireo near
the wedding rock gave us a great view (best I ever had, and only 5 feet
away from my head; I could see down his little pink throat when he yawned);
a kingfisher has taken up territory on the bay; a spotted sandpiper with
some spots still on was rooting around the main pond, along with a couple
of leasts and a western that I thought for the longest time was one-legged
but he was just resting his tired foot, I guess; a Cooper's flew by,
looking as flat as a viper's head as he glided past the main pond, causing
a mother pheasant and some chicks to freeze. I also saw a MacGillvray's
warbler amongst some orange-crowneds, only the second one I've seen at the
Fill. The over-wintering ducks are beginning to arrive in numbers, although
they are very wary - northern shovelers and wigeons, with a pintail thrown
in. I caught a glimpse of what I thought might be a Bonaparte's gull, but
it was such a quick look, I might have been mistaken. Two Anna's
hummingbirds have been dueling above the wedding rock for the last couple
of days, and they were hard at it again today. Meanwhile, the juvenile
white-crowned sparrows are just beginning to emerge into the open, which is
great because they've been driving me crazy with their high-pitched squeaks
buried in the depths of the bushes where even Superman would have trouble
spotting them.

By the way, if I forgot to mention it before, a group from PAWS released a
beaver the other day, down by the point near the dead beaver trees. They
said he had been hurt by a passing water-skier, so why they let him go in
the busiest water-skiing part of the Fill beats me. If you see this guy,
he's wearing a big red ear tag. The loosestrife in Boy Scout Pond looks
really sick, so I hope the beetles are chewing away. Stuart has been
digging up loosestrife roots at a furious pace on the main pond, which is
why the place looks so much livelier with shorebirds and raptors than it
has in a while, I'm sure. Thanks, Stuart. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com