Hey tweets, I keep thinking this is the last nice day we'll have this year,
so I'd better get myself down to the Fill and soak up the good weather.
Whatever excuse works, use it - I go to the Fill when it rains, too! Or when
I'm feeling sad. Or glad. Or bored. Or stressed out. Or when I have a
deadline to meet but the creative floodgates are locked up tight. Or when
too many relatives think I've got something to do with their happiness.
Or... whenever.

I am reminded of a group of my college friends who never missed a single
episode of a weird daytime soap - I think it was called "Dark Shadows." My
impression is that "Dark Shadows" was just like all the other soaps on TV
except its characters were all vampires - but I could be mistaken about
that. I watched exactly 1/5 of one episode and then gave up. I asked my
friends why they watched it without fail every day. "So we don't miss
anything," they replied. That's why I like to go down to the Fill so often.
Lord knows what I would miss if I skipped a day.

At any rate, I'm glad I didn't skip today because the place was simply
stuffed, especially near the CUH. The lone remaining stand of blackberry
bushes was so full of sparrows and finches that it sounded like a pet store.
Among all the usual suspects was my favorite sparrow (Lincoln's) and a BIG
first for me at the Fill: a gorgeous white-throated sparrow. This one is a
real looker: bright, bright yellow lores, huge white throat, broad head
stripes, bright brown plumage. Wowsa.

Accompanying this visitor from the east was the yellow-shafted flicker male,
still trying to get it on with a red-shafted female. He was so focused on
his mission that he completely ignored a big dog being walked right up to
him. "Yeah, yeah, leave me alone; can't you see I'm busy" was his attitude.
Luckily the dog was one of those laid-back labs that wouldn't get excited if
you shot off a stick of dynamite under his nose.

The crows were especially chirked up today, kind of like the home team
winning the big game. They chased away a Cooper's hawk, and then when they
gathered to congratulate each other, they spotted a red-tailed hawk and did
the same thing to that raptor too. After that, the crows had a swim-fest in
the dime parking lot pond. The only bird bold enough to challenge them to
the area was a Bewick's wren who has claimed the secluded pond just south of
the parking lot. He was singing up a storm and didn't seem to care how many
crows were there trying to crowd onto every branch. I admire the little
guy's spunk, though perhaps a little less foolhardiness might be in order. I
mean, he doesn't have to sit on top of a tree in the open to stake his
claim. A big thick impenetrable bush would work just as well.

Here's a list of everything I found today:

pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
northern shoveler
American wigeon
bufflehead
American coot
glaucous-winged gull
ring-billed gull
red-tailed hawk
Cooper's hawk
rock pigeon
Anna's hummingbird
belted kingfisher
northern flicker (yellow-shafted and red-shafted)
Steller's jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
American robin
European starling
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
dark-eyed junco
white-throated sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
Lincoln's sparrow
house sparrow
red-winged blackbird
American goldfinch
house finch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com