Hey tweets, I spent many happy hours at the Fill yesterday, soaking up the
peace and quiet. For a change, I hiked down the newly opened area to the
east of the greenhouses. This used to be densely overgrown with blackberry
bushes, but most of those have been cleared out. Now you can clamber all
the way down to the lake. The neat thing about this area is that it has a
lot of small trees to provide cover. I saw a Lincoln's sparrow, plenty of
Wilson't warblers, a hermit thrush and a belted kingfisher.

Other notables throughout the Fill:
* the sage thrasher is still present
* a spotted sandpiper seems to be making a home on the main pond this year
* the pectoral sandpiper that's been seen before is still hanging around
* the sparse trees to the south of the main pond are stuffed with warblers:
orange-crowned, Wilson's (best year for Wilson's in my memory), common
yellowthroat, yellow-rumped, and yellow.
* there are two nests for northern flickers this year, one south of the
Urban Hort building and one by the wooden bridge
* western tanagers in the swamp south of the Urban Hort building
* more warbling vireos all over the place than I have ever seen before
* blue-winged and cinnamon teal on the main pond and Shoveler Pond

I'm having trouble with green herons again this year. Haven't seen a one.
Please don't flood tweeters with reports of green herons walking over your
toes. I'm still trying to get over the Virginia rail that did that for one
lucky tweets but not for me. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com