Hey tweets, It's a real puzzle for me today to report to you. On the one
hand, I'd like to say that I had a great warbler day. After all, I saw five
different species of warblers, which is excellent for the Fill: common
yellowthroat, orange-crowned, Wilson's, yellow-rumped, yellow. On the other
hand, the birds were not numerous (except for the yellowthroats), and they
were even harder to see than usual. I think because the wind was so brisk,
the birds kept mostly to the interior of the bushes, giving me just the
briefest glimpse of a bill, or a rump, or a tail flick. Warblers are always
like that, to some extent, but today they carried their teasing to
inordinate lengths. So should I be frustrated or buoyant? I hardly know. I
think I should just feel lucky: there is a perfectly gigantic peregrine
hanging around in the area, and she is keeping a lot of the birds hidden or
just plain gone. I did see a flock of six oblivious least sandpipers on the
main pond; I wonder how long they will last? The peregrine is magnificent.

By the way, the construction crews have begun work at last on the new CUH.
They've blocked off the little parking lot just to the west of the
boarded-up building. So now I am going to park in the lot near the
greenhouses, which will give me a good excuse to bird the treeline to the
east of the greenhouses, a severely underbirded area. This should be a good
spot for migrating passerines.

Also on view today:

pied-billed grebe
great blue heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
northern shoveler
wood duck
American coot
least sandpiper
glaucous-winged gull
ring-necked pheasant
rock dove
Anna's hummingbird
belted kingfisher
northern flicker
barn swallow
Steller's jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
European starling
orange-crowned warbler
yellow-rumped warbler
yellow warbler
Wilson's warbler
common yellowthroat
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
red-winged blackbird
American goldfinch
house finch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com