Hey tweets, My husband and I took a little jaunt out to Emerald Downs at
noon to look for the Black Phoebe. Much to our amazement, we found it. The
bird was catching insect larvae in the field to the east of the farmhouse on
M Street. It kept returning to two very large fenceposts that abutted the
blackberry bushes on the east side of the creek right by the bridge
mentioned by other tweets.

John and I were flabbergasted that we had located this bird so quickly
(within 10 minutes of our arrival). Usually on these chases, we spend hours
and hours searching for some lah-de-dah rarity that everyone else has seen
but we never do.

We watched the phoebe for a few minutes until it flew off. Then we turned to
stare at each other. We had budgeted several hours and most of our psychic
energy to pursue another one of our fruitless chases, and here we were
successful in mere minutes. Now what should we do? All our flabbers were
indeed completely gasted.

"Well, the keyboard is calling us," said John, reminding me that he and I
both have a mountain of work to do at home. But he didn't say it like he
meant it. No, his tone was hopeful, more like, "Please help me think of a
reason for why we need to climb back in the car and keep driving south until
we find some other birdy spot, and then the next one, and the next, until
Monday never comes."

Alas, nothing sprang to mind. My brain was still running on the Getting to
No Bird track and I couldn't locate my emergency brake.

So now here I sit, in front of my keyboard. Great bird. Great spot. Great
Caesar's Ghost, I wish I were still out there.- Connie, Seattle

csidles at u.washington.edu