Subject: [Tweeters] Fill glorious
Date: Apr 23 16:29:45 2006
From: csidles at isomedia.com - csidles at isomedia.com


Hey tweets, Well, I have fallen into temptation and now I am paying the
price. I am not a house-proud, nor yard-proud sort of person. I don't need
to have the most imposing home, nor the most pleasing landscape. But I do
have one little ambition, one little standard, however low. I yearn not to
have the worst yard on the block. I am content with my dandelions, my
clumpy grass tussocks, the moss tamping down the blue-stem in random
circles. I can tolerate even the one patch of dirt upon which nothing will
grow; I have never sought to learn why. As my husband has long counseled,
"Don't ask questions to which you do not want to hear the answers." So
long as someone else on the block has more of a junk-yard-dog look than I
do, I can fool myself into thinking it is not I who drags down the
landscape standards of the neighbors.

Alas, today, instead of hauling out the mower and the weed whacker and the
dandelion digger-upper, I went to the Fill this morning. I intended only a
short walk, just a quick look at the main pond to see if any new
shorebirds had flown in during the night.

Socrates said, "Know thyself," so I should have known better. I tried
three times to go home, and each time, some new bird drew me back. The
first time, I was actually in my car, ready to turn for home, but then I
heard a killdeer calling over by the old wooden bridge. So I went to the
dime parking lot instead to find the killdeer and check out the warbler
tree. No warblers, but I did find a lone WILSON'S SNIPE, crouching in the
cattails to the east of the slough, sitting right next to a GREATER
WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, the guy who's been hanging around all winter and
looks not in the least inclined to be up and migrating.

One winter visitor attracts another - so I told myself, and off I went
back to the main pond, where, sure enough, a little flock of four AMERICAN
PIPITS were feeding on the north end. Asleep on the far shore was a
BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Then a group of birders clustered around a scope to the
west drew me over there. They were looking at a pair of CINNAMON TEALS, a
male and a female just a few feet away from the path south of the dime
parking lot. With the sun shining on the rich maple brown of the male's
flanks, it was a glorious symphony of red eyes, honey tertials, glowing
embers on the sides. Then he casually flipped out a webbed foot and
scratched his head, ruffling the perfection of those lovely feathers. It
was rather like a graceful cat who is completely conscious of its own
beauty but then heaves up a hairball. And so back to reality.

I was trudging back to the car, when I noted the flight of a lone DUNLIN
overhead, in company with three LEAST SANDPIPERS. All four were calling
their wild Arctic calls, drawing the soul northward away from the city and
from all human responsibilities, mundane or otherwise. I saw more birders
staring at the shores of Shoveler Pond. Four LEASTS in mud. One of the
birders took the trouble to come over to tell me he had just seen a
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD back at the south end of the main pond. Why fight
it? Back I went, to see a gorgeous male foraging in the short grass.
Nearby were two male BLUE-WINGED TEALS. I set down my camp stool and
waited for more miracles. VAUX'S SWIFTS skimming the water for a drink. A
CLIFF SWALLOW scooping up a beakful of mud for a nest. Two male MALLARDS
chasing a female in an aerial display of flashing greens and browns. Was
she testing them to see who was worthy of her favor? Was she more
interested in thinking about England and wishing the dumb males would
leave her alone? Who knows.

Altogether I saw 53 species today. I stayed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. I walked
more than 3 miles. I am way too tired to mow the lawn now. It's 4:30. My
husband looks over at me. "How about stretching your legs?" he asks.
"Wanna go to the Fill?"

One year, a neighbor decided to totally remodel her house. She had a
dumpster company come by and drop off a big green, enclosed dumpster in
the middle of her yard, so she could store all her stuff in it while the
builders worked. The builders took much longer than she had thought, and
so the dumpster stayed in her yard for nearly two years. All her grass
died. Hardy weeds grew up in clumps around the dumpster, amid piles of
rocks and bare earth. I loved that neighbor's yard. For two solid years, I
didn't have to do a thing to my yard in order to meet my low standard. Yet
the other neighbords never said a word because after all, she was
remodeling. I wonder how much she paid to rent that dumpster?

Here's everything I saw at the Fill today:
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Greater White-fronted Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser
American Coot
Glaucous-winged Gull
Great Blue Heron
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Wilson's Snipe
Ring-necked Pheasant
Bald Eagle
Rock Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (both red-shafted and yellow-shafted)
American Pipit
Vaux's Swift
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
American Crow
Steller's Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler (both Audubon's and Myrtle)
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
White-crowned Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
House Finch
American Goldfinch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com