Subject: [Tweeters] CBC Rainier Kent Des Moines
Date: Jan 2 22:33:03 2005
From: carenp - carenp at totalise.co.uk


among the things i didn't enjoy doing this morning: getting up at 5am to be
in des moines by 8am, then discovering the ambient air temperature was below
freezing at sunrise (which occurred as i was driving into the car park)...

among the things i DID enjoy: meeting new friends and old, and wandering
through the des moines and sea tac countryside in search of organic flying
thingies...

among the birds we found: surf scoters by the bazillions, barrow's
goldeneyes that outnumbered common goldeneyes by 5 to 1, a few harlequin
ducks (which i unfortunately did not see), a number of very territorial
anna's hummingbirds, perhaps 150 starlings (who did a creditable
imbirdination of chimney swifts at dusk as they flew into a bank sign), and
the catch of the day: one mint-condition mountain chickadee, who obviously
followed a road MUCH less travelled when he should have taken that left turn
at albuquerque...

the gallery website has been updated for the scoter, the chickadee, a new
sharp-shinned hawk, a western scrub jay, and a few others... comic relief
was provided by a gull who is trying to eat corn from a corncob, and the
corncob is not cooperative...

for those who are keeping track, we now have on display 184 avian images
with 125 species, 5 new species and 20 new images since the first of
december... click on GALLERIES, CAREN PARK, and finally BIRDS...
alternately, if you are only interested in the mountain chickadee, s/he also
appears on the Photo of the Week page...

this year has started with a bang... one can hope the trend continues...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
warming her frozen tootsies in kirkland
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