Hey tweets, To be filed in the "You had to be there" folder of birding
memories will have to go 15 minutes of fabularity at the Fill this morning.
After walking around for more than an hour in cloudy,
almost-but-not-quite-raining conditions, I was really sweating the birds. By
that I mean, the birds were there, but man did I have to work hard to find
them. You know you got problems when you hear Black-capped Chickadees but
can't see a single one, when Mallards sit so hunched up you're not sure
whether they're Mallards or Gadwalls, and when even the starlings and
Canada Geese have disappeared.

And then the sun broke through the heavy clouds for 15 minutes. At once, the
sky filled with huge numbers of Vaux's Swifts and Barn Swallows. Even more
stunning, the trees along the gravel path leading to the point filled up
with WARBLERS! In seconds, I saw more than a dozen YELLOW and ORANGE-CROWNED
WARBLERS. COMMON YELLOWTHROATS were everywhere. Best of all was a
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER. It was foraging beside a WESTERN TANAGER, which
displaced two DOWNY WOODPECKERS, who went on to sit beside a few CEDAR
WAXWINGS. BEWICK'S WRENS popped out, MARSH WRENS climbed up on the cattail
stalks, a GREEN HERON flew by, and a flock of WOOD DUCKS came sailing out of
the weeds. NORTHERN FLICKERS hurried overhead, apparently attending a
flicker convention, judging by the numbers. Over at the main pond, which had
been completely bare of birds earlier, a flock of LEAST and WESTERN
SANDPIPERS let me get within a foot before they ran under a tree. A KILLDEER
roosted peaceably nearby, not even raising a peep. By the time the COOPER'S
HAWK flew past, my head was spinning around faster than the girl in "The
Exorcist." I think my neck is still twisted into a spiral.

And to think I almost didn't go today.

Here's everything I found:
pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
green heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
American wigeon
wood duck
killdeer
least sandpiper
western sandpiper
spotted sandpiper
glaucous-winged gull
ring-billed gull
Cooper's hawk
rock pigeon
Vaux's swift
belted kingfisher
northern flicker
downy woodpecker
barn swallow
Steller's jay
American crow
bushtit
black-capped chickadee
red-breasted nuthatch
Bewick's wren
marsh wren
American robin
cedar waxwing
European starling
yellow warbler
black-throated gray warbler
orange-crowned warbler
common yellowthroat
song sparrow
savannah sparrow
red-winged blackbird
western tanager
American goldfinch
house finch

Also saw a muskrat, a beaver and a nutria. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com