Hey tweets, Numbers of birds are almost never big at the Fill but diversity
certainly is. This morning I found 40 species in just an hour and a half,
and I know if I had stayed longer I would have topped 50.

The highlight for me was a huge crowd of Vaux's swifts circling the
cottonwood/alder grove near the start of Wahkiakum Trail. I saw the same
flock last evening, which made me wonder if it's the spring migration coming
through and roosting in the chimney at St. Stephens. I will try to be at St.
Stephens tonight at dusk to see if the birds go in. If they do, it is a true
wonder of nature to see. Two years ago John and I happened upon the
phenomenon (we'd only seen it before in the fall). The swifts circled around
the area for a long time, diving closer and closer to the chimney but not
going in. Then at one signal, they all dove into the chimney in a huge
stream of birds. John and I counted between 10-20 birds a second. We were
dying of curiosity to know how the swifts handled such a volume of bodies
inside the chimney. Do the first birds fly to the bottom, leaving the top
for the following birds? Or do the first birds fill up the top, forcing the
later birds to go ever deeper? Whatever they do, in less than 5 minutes,
they were all gone.

The other highlight today was a single northern rough-winged swallow over
the main pond. It's rare to see these swallows at the Fill, so that was
quite a treat.

Another treat was to watch an immature bald eagle try to perch in the dead
beaver trees at the south point. He looked ridiculous wedged against the
main trunk while trying to hold onto a deeply vee'd branch on the side. Do
you remember reading about the Paul Bunyon goats who lived on such a steep
hill that one set of their legs was shorter than the other? The eagle looked
like he could have used a set of legs like that. Ever since the main beaver
tree fell over, the raptors have been struggling with finding comfortable
perches on the remaining snags. Two days ago, a mature bald eagle, who
should have known better, landed on top of the snag, which is just a spike
sticking up. The poor eagle bunched all his toes together in an effort to
hold on, but I think he just had way too many toes to fit. He flew off soon
after and buzzed the dime lot pond, putting the fear of God into all the
ducks there.

Here's a list of what I saw this morning:
pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
northern shoveler
cinnamon teal
lesser scaup
common goldeneye (female)
bald eagle
ring-necked pheasant
American coot
killdeer
least sandpiper
glaucous winged gull
Vaux's swift
Anna's hummingbird
northern flicker (red-shafted; haven't seen the yellow-shafted for a while)
Steller's jay
American crow
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
barn swallow
northern rough-winged swallow
cliff swallow
bushtit
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
American robin
European starling
orange-crowned warbler
yellow-rumped warbler (both kinds)
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird
house finch
American goldfinch
- Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com