Hey tweets, Few things in life are more annoying than a smug gloater. When
you couple smug-gloation with birding, you get the very dregs of our
species: the birder who greets you with a big grin and says, "You should
have been here xx minutes ago." This sentence, I will note, is frequently
accompanied by a kind of look-down-your-nose, almost French disdain for the
hoi polloi that the rest of us belong to.

So allow me to be the first today to plunge into those irritating shoals of
smug-gloation and say, "You should have been at the Fill this morning." I
led a small, small group of birders (one Jeff and one husband, later joined
by one Pat) on a truly outstanding walk around my favorite place on earth.
Here are some highlights:

? The large peregrine falcon with the heavy helmet that I have been seeing
lately showed up again today. She flew into the dead beaver snag and
proceeded to display herself in perfect light. She knew we were looking at
her, but she didn't mind. She even obligingly stuck out her left leg well
enough so we could see her band: G1. She had a metal band on her right leg.
After she flew off hunting the main pond, we saw a bit later that she was
joined by *two* other falcons, all tossing and turning and joining feet.
I've never seen so many at the Fill before.

? A greater white-fronted goose flew across the Fill from south to north,
passing in review much like an air-show plane giving spectators the photo
pass. I haven't seen a greater white-fronted goose at the Fill for at least
three years, and never one so early.

? A marsh wren in perfect light hopping in and out of sight on the northeast
edge of the main pond. Its colors were spectacular in totally windless
conditions (I will also mention that my broken Nikons are now back on my
eyes after a month-long visit to the binoc doc; I am in heaven).

? The yellow-shafted male flicker is still going after the red-shafted
female hotly and heavily. They were flirting among the grove of little trees
immediately south of the construction area.

? An Anna's hummingbird was buzzing the parking lot this morning, always a
treat. This one, however, flew off like a goldfinch, flapping and then
bulleting with wings close to body. I haven't seen a hummingbird fly like
that before.

? A western grebe was on Union Bay. Westerns have become quite rare at the
Fill now; years go by when I see none.

? My walk today was entitled "Feet and Feathers." Dennis Paulson kindly gave
me some bird carcasses, which I defrosted so I could show people how
feathers work, wings fold, tails spread, feet clench, etc. One of the birds
Dennis so kindly gave me was a barn owl. I was unfolding its wings on the
hood of my car, so people could see the fringing on the feathers, when a
crow sitting on the wire overhead all of a sudden woke up to the fact that
an owl had entered its midst. It straightened up like it had been stuck with
a pin and began calling to its mates. I had no trouble translating: "Hey,
that's an owl! What's an owl doing here? Hey, guys, come here. Hurry up.
There's an owl here. Hey. Ark Ark." We collected quite a few spectators, all
of whom had a lot to say about this outrage. It was all very funny.

Here's a list of everything we found today:

pied-billed grebe
western grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
greater white-fronted goose
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
American wigeon
northern shoveler
green-winged teal
bufflehead
American coot
glaucous-winged gull
ring-billed gull
peregrine falcon
Anna's hummingbird
belted kingfisher
northern flicker (red-shafted and yellow-shafted)
Steller's jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
marsh wren
American robin
European starling
spotted towhee (abundant)
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
fox sparrow
house sparrow
dark-eyed junco
red-winged blackbird
American goldfinch
house finch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com