Hey tweets, Yesterday evening at the Fill, I encountered mysteries and
uniquenesses that I never thought I'd see. First, I saw nary a single crow.
Nor did I see a single Canada goose. Remember when all the airplanes were
grounded after 9/11 and how strange it was to see empty skies? I felt that
same eery sense of something wrong. Where was everybody? I couldn't say. The
evening was stormy and windy, with a strong westerly but not so strong that
large flies were blown about. I saw several honking-big horseflies (I'm not
being specific here, knowing absolutely nothing about flies except that
Emily Dickinson heard one when she died) flying upwind, so it wasn't the
wind that was grounding crows and Canadas. Maybe they were holding their
daily convention elsewhere.

On a positive note, I saw something I haven't seen at the Fill for years and
years: an American kestrel!! It was perched at the top of the dead trees
just south of the dime parking lot pond, clinging with all its claws to the
tippy-top of the tree as the bough swayed perilously in the wind.

Also on view on the main pond: a solitary sandpiper, a spotted sandpiper and
two leasts, none of whom paid the least attention to the kestrel. I have
just bought a terrific lightweight camp-stool from REI, which I plunked down
beside the main pond. The birds seemed pacified by the sight of a human
reduced in height and sitting very still. Even the pesky killdeers accepted
me without a second look, one going to far as to forage directly in front of
me, just five feet away. As for the solitary and other peeps, they paid no
attention to me at all. I sat there until the evening mosquitoes started up.
On my mosey back to the car, I was privileged to see a large flock of Vaux's
swifts come spiraling by. There must have been more than 40 in the flock.
They all foraged in a clump, so I think they're gathering to stage for their
migration. I drove over to St. Stephens to see if they would roost in the
chimney, but I didn't see any go in. Perhaps they've found another roost.
I'll keep watching and let you know. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com

here's a list of what I found:
pied-billed grebes (one on a nest just to the east of the vantage point
overlooking Union Bay)
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
killdeer
least sandpiper
spotted sandpiper
solitary sandpiper
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
wood duck (the little flock of teens hatched on Union Bay)
glaucous-winged gull
California gull
American kestrel
bushtit
black-capped chickadee
Vaux's swift
barn swallow
Bewick's wren
yellow-rumped warbler
European starling