Hey tweets, The Fill was really jumping this morning. When I arrived at 8
a.m. in the parking lot next to the Urban Hort building, the tall
cottonwoods by the picnic table were so full of yellow-rumped warblers I
couldn't even really see them. No sooner did my binocs focus on one bird
than another would catch my eye. Nearly every clump of leaves was laden
with a warbler.

Things only got better from here. In the row of low scrub leading to the
building (always a good spot for sparrows), I found a spotted towhee, a
number of white-crowned and two golden-crowned sparrows. The Anna's
hummingbird is back to guarding his little tree here again. I expect he'll
be busy all winter long.

Along the treeline to the south were ruby-crowned kinglets, more
yellow-rumps and song sparrows, as well as numerous northern flickers and
one male downy woodpecker. One of the flickers flew over to the plywood
still boarding up the Urban Hort building and began banging away furiously.
He made quite a racket - I think the room behind the plywood must have
vibrated like a kettle drum. I can foresee much breeding success for this
enterprising flicker.

The main pond was filled with ducks, for a change. It's been remarkably
bare most of the summer. But today there were 40-plus green-winged teal
there, as well as three northern pintails, several mallards and three or
four northern shovelers. The ducks were a little jumpy but did not dare fly
away, because the little male peregrine was perched in the dead beaver tree
nearby. That falcon can be rather difficult to see - he seems to align
himself with a vertical branch most of the time, so keep a sharp lookout
for him. The crows leave him strictly alone. A group of five or six crows
flew out to the snag and contemplated dive-bombing the falcon, but they
just didn't quite have the nerve. Luckily for their esprit de corps, a
northern harrier happened by. The crows left the peregrine and harassed the
harrier unmercifully, calling to their fellows to join in, until there was
a huge flock after the poor harrier. After chasing off the harrier, the
crows found a Cooper's hawk by the boathouse and attacked her. She tried to
fight back, but there were just too many crows. Driving off two raptors
seemed to rev up the crows, because they began gratuitously attacking
random birds: a teal, a belted kingfisher, a red-winged blackbird. The
crows have become so vigilant and persistent that I haven't seen a
shorebird around for several days, not even a killdeer.

I did, however, see a lone western meadowlark, lurking on the edge of the
cattails along the straight south strip of the gravel loop. We seem to get
at least one or two of these each spring and fall, but they never hang
around for long. As I was studying the meadowlark, a merlin came bursting
out from somewhere, flew over the hidden pond by the dime parking lot and
then soared up into a tree. I think it must be the same merlin I saw in the
dead beaver tree the other day. It has a habit of assuming the most awkward
poses you can imagine, like a Siamese that wants to get ugly for awhile.
The merlin turns its tail sideways and fans it out, or stretches out one
wing and one foot - you wouldn't think a bird so graceful could look so
dorky.

Altogether, I saw 39 species today. A fine day. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com