Subject: More Fill
Date: Jul 26 08:55:11 2001
From: Constance J. Sidles - csidles at mail.isomedia.com


Hey tweets, At the Fill yesterday, along with the usual suspects, I saw a
western kingbird catching bugs around the main pond. For some reason, these
birds never hang around here for long. We seem to catch them during
migrations. But they are a welcome sight for as long as they choose to
grace the Fill. This one was an especially spectacular flyer: he flapped
off his perch on the dead willow in the pond (he didn't like me looking at
him) and headed for the lone tree in the middle of the meadow to the east.
Then he must have spotted a good bug because all of a sudden he shot up a
hundred feet into the air, folded his wings like a peregrine and dove down
almost to the ground. In fact, I lost sight of him when he hit the tall
weeds in the field. It was quite a sight to see his yellow belly against
the blue sky before he made his dive. A good thing I had a chance to admire
him then because he disappeared after that. The grass just seemed to
swallow him up.

I also saw a mother pheasant out with *nine* of her babies for what must
have been the first time. The babies were hardly bigger than savannah
sparrows. Look for her near the lone pine tree at the crest of the gravel
path heading down to the dead beaver trees on the point.

Also of note, I saw a large number of Vaux's swifts catching insects on the
fly. There must have been 10 or 12 or them, at least, right at 4:00 in the
afternoon. I usually don't see that many swifts this time of year and at
that time of day. They are one of my favorite birds, and they were flying
really low so I got great looks. Sometimes they flew quite close to me -
maybe I was attracing mosquitoes for them to catch, which suits me just
fine. I seem to have a fatal attraction for mosquitoes - I can be in a
group of 15 people and be the only one to get bitten. Nice to know that my
affliction may serve my beloved swifts. - Connie, Seattle

Connie Sidles, csidles at mail.isomedia.com