Subject: Fill thoughts
Date: Dec 30 10:31:37 2003
From: Connie Sidles - csidles at isomedia.com


Hey tweets, Locked away in my home office as I've been for the past several
days, I was unaware that yesterday was a spectacularly sunny day. In my mole
hole of an office, who can tell? But then I heard the little ticka-ticka
noise made by this stupid device that my sister-in-law gave me one year.
It's an enclosed lightbulb-like knickknack with little squares of paper,
black on one side and white on the other, mounted on an upright axle so the
squares can twirl like a weathervane. Sunlight warming up the black sides of
paper causes the thing to spin, making a little ticking noise. I *love* this
ridiculous gift because it always lets me know when I should be outside
birding. Upon hearing its siren call yesterday, I grabbed hat, coat and
binocs and headed out to my favorite place on earth.

The Fill was cold and windy. Shoveler Pond was completely iced over, as was
a quarter of the main pond. This happy event seemed to concentrate vast
hordes of ducks on Union Bay. The spot of the day had to be a tossup between
four gloriously lit-up REDHEAD ducks close in to shore and three WILSON'S
SNIPES flying straight past my head against a postcard-blue sky with Mt.
Rainier in the background. Or maybe I'd have to say an even better spot was
the dozen COMMON MERGANSERS in full breeding plumage. Or perhaps it was the
YELLOW-SHAFTED NORTHERN FLICKER feeding on the ground at the main pond and
letting me approach to within a couple of feet. Or maybe the COOPER'S HAWK
dive-bombing a flock of starlings like a Japanese kite-fighter attacking
lesser kites. Or perhaps the two RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS arguing with each
other by showing off their ruby crowns, to such an extent that it looked
like their entire pates were flaming red. I've never seen so much of their
ruby crowns before.

And that brings me to a point I'd like to make, if you will be kind enough
to indulge me (if not, delete now - I'm about to start my rant).

In reviewing my posts of the last year at the Fill, I find myself often
saying "I've never seen xx before." I'm sure you could say the same. For
example, in my ramblings yesterday, I came upon two other birders, scoping
Union Bay and leafing through a bird book. They kindly asked me if I wanted
to look through their scope, but rather than take them up on their offer, I
asked them to identify the gulls squatting on the mud island out in the bay.
I thought I knew what those gulls were, but even with my 10x Nikons, it was
a distant spot. "We don't know gulls," they said, discouraged. So I asked
them to look for a gull with gray wingtips - a sure sign of a
glaucous-winged. Then I asked them to describe the yellow-legged gull they
also were seeing. "It's got black wingtips," they said. I asked if it had a
black ring around its bill, and they said yes. "Ring-billed gull for sure."

"We've never seen that before," they said.

Isn't that amazing? Although I've been birding for 20 years, and I go to the
Fill nearly every day, and (Dennis Paulson willing) I will be able to call
myself a master birder after this year's class is behind me, both these
newbies and I could say the same thing about the Fill yesterday: We've never
seen that before. What a treasure we have right here in Seattle. And it's
free.

Well, it's not really free, is it? It's maintained by the University of
Washington, which in turn is maintained by our entire society (either
through taxes, grants or gifts). My point is, experiencing the thrill and
wonder of the Fill is something anyone can do at any time and at no cost,
thanks to the fact that society thinks this is a good thing.

So let me take back what I said the other day about user fees being okay.
They're not okay. I'm agin 'em. These public lands deserve to be supported
by the entire public for the benefit of us all. Anyone should be able to go
to them at any time and at no cost.

The concept of user fees sounds so good on first hearing: let the people who
use something pay for it, and let the rest of us who don't use it be free of
responsibility. But what kind of society would we have if we extended this
philosophy? I'm not paying for eastern Washington BLM lands because I never
go on them. Let the ranchers and hunters pay for their full maintenance. I'm
not paying for schools anywhere because my kids are grown. I'm not paying
for commuter ferries because I never ride them. No stadiums; never go. No
libraries; I buy my books. No subsidized housing for poor folks; I ain't
poor.

No. A society fragmented in this way is my idea of hell. Is that too strong?
I don't think so. Fragmentation based on paying only for things I myself
want and need will result in a system that bestows a high standard of life
on the privileged few and a brutish life on those who can't afford the
privilege.

I'd rather live in a society that values the commons, even if a particular
part of the commons serves others' needs and not mine. So I'm happy to help
ferry riders on Vashon get to work. I like to picture school-age kids having
modern computers and the latest books, things that I have helped pay for. I
hate to swim but I love the idea of supporting public swimming pools for
those whose passion is swimming.

I don't need an economic reason to justify my support of a civic-minded
project. I think civic-mindedness is a value worth supporting by itself. To
that end, I am going to advocate for more resources to be raised and given
toward improving the environment for the good of us all.

End of rant; thanks for listening.

FYI, here's everything I saw yesterday at the Fill:

pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
northern pintail
northern shoveler
ruddy duck
redhead (four)
ring-necked duck
greater scaup
lesser scaup
bufflehead
common merganser
American coot
Wilson's snipe
glaucous-winged gull
ring-billed gull
Cooper's hawk
rock pigeon
northern flicker (yellow-shafted)
American crow
bushtit
Bewick's wren
ruby-crowned kinglet
European starling
golden-crowned sparrow
house finch

-Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com