Hey tweets, Richard Leakey was once asked what it took to be a top-flight
paleontologist (Leakey, his mother, father, wife and crew have found
virtually every known hominid fossil in Olduvai Gorge in East Africa). "You
have to have a good eye," Leakey said, "and you have to be lucky." On
Saturday, Colin Thoreen, I and a group from Tahoma Audubon were lucky
during our two-hour morning Fill walk. Among the 38 species we saw were:
* a pileated woodpecker (my first ever at the Fill), flying right over our
heads and calling all the while
* a yellow-shafted male northern flicker, perched in full sunlight so we
could gaze to our heart's content at his bright yellow plumage
* a sharpie that patrolled over our heads numerous times
* two Anna's mixing it up by the wedding rock, then perching for a full view
* golden-crowned kinglets, rare at the Fill
* two male hooded mergansers foofing up their showy heads and throwing back
their necks for the female nearby who couldn't care less

It was one of those days. One birder said, "A birding trip is not a good
one for my friend here unless she sees a kingfisher." Just then one flew
by, calling noisily.

Another birder said, "I just have to see my favorite duck, the bufflehead."
Just then we rounded the bay and a dozen bufflehead were settled down there
(just down from the north in numbers, as I know from trying to see them
earlier in the week).

That brought another birder to say, "Well, my favorite duck is the wood
duck." So naturally three came paddling out of the reeds near the slough.

Why couldn't one of the Tahoma people have something like, "A Steller's sea
eagle would be nice right about now." Pure greed makes me say this.

Many thanks to Colin for helping lead the walk, and for his young, sharp
eyes and spotting expertise. We would have missed several of our great
species without him. Also many thanks to those Tahoma birders, who, in
Louis L'Amour's words, are "shot with luck." Come back anytime.

After the Fill walk, my husband and I drove down to Westport, in
anticipation of the 14-foot swell that was supposed to give him hours and
hours of surfing pleasure. When we arrived, of course the swell had
disappeared, but the waves were still big enough for two days of fun for
him, and plenty of birding for me. We found 72 species total in our two
days of birding. The highlights were:
* five great egrets feeding in the saltmarsh 1/4 mile this side of the
Exxon where you turn off to go to Westport
* four rock sandpipers perched on the Westport fishing pier, along with a
hundred surfbirds and 20 or so black turnstones
* more brown pelicans than I've ever seen, diving for fish, gliding along
the wave-fronts, and generally being pestered by the gulls
* one common murre fishing in the cove (has their population crashed again?)
* At John River, some good-hearted souls have built a 3/4 mile walkway in
the reserve. The birding here was absolutely great: northern shrike,
greater yellowlegs, lots of dunlin, many common snipe, a merlin, a northern
harrier, vast V's of Canada geese flying over, one group landing with a
greater white-fronted goose among them looking slightly out of place but
trying not to show it. You know how they do, turning their heads all
around, half confused that they're with Canadas instead of with their own
kind, and half hoping that no one else is noticing this discrepancy. If
you're down in that area, I strongly urge you to pay a visit to this
reserve. The viewing is great, the habitat varied, the silence awesome. -
Connie, Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com