Hey tweets, Lately, I've been feeling horrid. Call it post-election blues,
crisis letdown, end of fall melancholia. I've been getting signs that my
attitude may need adjusting - like the other day, when a driver whose vanity
license plate should have read Bozo the Clown failed to heed a Yield sign,
my husband and I discussed the necessity for up-armoring our Honda Civic so
we could show such drivers a thing or two. Not good. I decided I needed to
renew myself.

So this afternoon, I flounced down to the Montlake Fill. Unfortunately, the
Fill failed to deliver as promised - I continued to feel disgruntled.
Thinking that a good hermit thrush would cheer me up, I hiked all the way
down to the water on the east side of the greenhouses, sloshing through wet
mud and mosquitoes, only to turn up a grand total of two buffleheads and a
Steller's jay. Nothing else was moving. To top it off, I could hear muffled
roars in the distance. Great. A football day. And my shoes were wet. I
thought about getting in the car and driving to Mars, but I hadn't packed
any clothes.

So I headed over to Shoveler Pond and heard a lot of chipping noises in the
field nearby. Three Lincoln's Sparrows were having uncharacteristically open
fun in the tall grasses. A Spotted Towhee mewed in the copse and then came
out to hop and scratch in the leaf litter. YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS filled the
upper reaches of the cottonwoods, while hordes of BUSHTITS took the lower
floors and threw a gabfest. A group of birders strolled by and asked if I'd
seen the CATTLE EGRET. At their direction, I hustled over to the Youth
Garden, and there it was, pecking in the grass. Of all things. I've never
seen a Cattle Egret at the Fill before.

The noises of the Husky fans and the traffic faded away to nothing. The sun
shed its light on the haze, creating a golden glow that poured over the
scene like honey. Most of the trees are losing their leaves now, but several
still gleam like candles set in a welcoming window at dusk.

Equally as welcoming were the birders I ran into. Caren Park popped up at
the main pond, patiently stalking some good photo ops. We chatted as the
birds flew by and the sun slowly turned to rose. I felt at peace again. I
may not understand what we humans do to the world or why, but nature
endures, unendingly beautiful and real. As Caren and I stood there, a dark
raptor flashed by not far above our heads. MERLIN.

The Fill grew silent as the other birds hunkered down. In the stillness, the
cheers and stomping of the fans in the stadium came back. So many of them,
so few of us. Can the fans merge with the game, just by watching? I can
merge with nature, just by being. Deliberately, I thought of the merlin,
terrible and glorious as nature itself- not a game, not entertainment, but
real life.

I strolled over to Union Bay, expecting ducks and getting them. But such
ducks: 11 CANVASBACKS, 2 REDHEADS, 1 COMMON GOLDENEYE, a HOODED MERGANSER in
breeding plumage. The boats that had come for the football game and forced
the ducks to congregate in the bay, where I could view them up close. They
didn't mind me, but they did start up when a kayaker paddled near. He was
too much for a little group of MALLARDS and GADWALLS - and one lone DUNLIN!
What a treat, and it was mine alone.

You know, when you come upon a great sighting out in the wild, your first
impulse is to share it with someone else. The exchanges of "Did you see
that?" and "Wow, take a look through my scope" are precious gifts we give to
each other. But every now and then, I think it's good to hug a priceless
moment to my heart by myself, alone. Those kinds of moments pierce through
the fog of tribulations we wrestle with every day. They enter our spirits to
be called back in memory when we need them.

Here's everything I saw today:

pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
CATTLE EGRET
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
northern shoveler
CANVASBACK (11!)
REDHEAD (2)
ring-necked duck
greater scaup
lesser scaup
COMMON GOLDENEYE (1)
bufflehead
hooded merganser
ruddy duck
MERLIN
American coot
DUNLIN
ring-billed gull
glaucous-winged gull
rock pigeon
belted kingfisher
downy woodpecker
northern flicker
Steller's jay
American crow
bushtit
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
ruby-crowned kinglet
American robin
European starling
yellow-rumped warbler
COMMON YELLOWTHROAT
spotted towhee
Lincoln's sparrow
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
pine siskin
American goldfinch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com