Hey tweets, If you ever want to see rarities, my advice is to hook up with
the folks from Tahoma Audubon. Every time I walk around the Fill with them,
I see things that just aren't there, or at least that shouldn't be. Take
pileated woodpeckers, for example. How often do you ever see them at all? At
the Fill, the answer is never - except when Tahoma Audubon shows up. Do they
act as a pileated magnet or what?

We were moseying around near the point, when a chittering woodpecker flew
overhead and glommed onto the dead beaver snag. As it flew in, I saw its
wing wing patches almost transparent against the strong sun, so I knew it
wasn't a flicker. As soon as our dazzled eyes could see straight, we
discovered a beautiful pileated tearing out hunks of dead wood and hunting
for bugs. The sun shone through its topknot like living fire. We got great
looks, and then the bird flew east, disappearing over the treetops. You've
got to appreciate that this happened at the *Fill*, in the heart of Seattle,
on a site with few trees, far from any forest.

Other highlights of our walk were a common goldeneye (not at all common
here), gorgeous male hooded mergansers, a red-tailed hawk, and a Lincoln's
sparrow on the main pond.

After reading the Saturday posts about lack of pink-footed geese and misses
of the tropical kingbird, I have a suggestion. To be fair to all the birders
of the state, we should parcel out the Tahoma Audubon members to each of our
favorite spots, maybe two to a spot if there are enough members to go
around; if not, then we'll have to be satisfied with one. Then we should
march around with them and simply record the rarities. I find that it helps
to talk about the rare birds you want to see first; somehow, that seems to
make the Tahoma magnetos work better. Personally, the next time the Tahoma
Audubon comes to Seattle, I'm putting in a request for Steller's sea eagle.

Here's a list of everything we saw, on a perfect day of bright sun, no wind:

pied-billed grebe
horned grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
northern pintail
northern shoveler
ring-necked duck
lesser scaup
common goldeneye
bufflehead
hooded merganser
American coot
glaucous-winged gull
bald eagle
red-tailed hawk
belted kingfisher (heard)
northern flicker
downy woodpecker (heard)
pileated woodpecker
Steller's jay (heard)
American crow
black-capped chickadee
bushtit
Bewick's wren (heard)
ruby-crowned kinglet
American robin
European starling
yellow-rumped warbler
song sparrow
dark-eyed junco
golden-crowned sparrow
Lincoln's sparrow
red-winged blackbird
American goldfinch
house finch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com