Hey tweets, Yesterday morning at the Fill was dead quiet. Whenever that
happens, I always suspect raptors, although if the dearth continues for too
long, I begin to question exactly what kind of a birder I really am.
Luckily for my ego, eventually two (!) peregrines flew overhead as I was
standing by the wedding rock. I ran into other birders who said the
peregrines had been perching on the light posts near the dime lot and had
coursed across the Fill and then perched again for at least two hours.

After the peregrines disappeared, the other birds came back out: yellow
warblers, common yellowthroats, a willow flycatcher, Anna's hummingbird
(beautiful male), and the usual suspects. On Union Bay were three wood
ducks. Also of note, ring-billed gulls and a very nervous northern
shoveler. Nary a shorebird to be seen.

The loosestrife-eating bugs seem to have gone into hibernation, or whatever
it is they do when they disappear. As a result, purple loosestrife is
blooming again around the main pond and in other spots. It's kind of late
in the year for these flowers to go through their whole cycle (I hope), so
I've left them alone. Next year, the bugs should be back on the job again.
The experiment seems to be working great so far, which is good news for
other birding spots around the state. I noticed, for example that
loosestrife has reared its ugly head on Spencer Island. Just a few plants
here and there, but that's how the scourge gets started. As a birding
community, we should probably keep an eye open for loosestrife incursions
and do something about them before they spread as horrendously as they did
at the Fill. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com