The six Greater White Front were still present and mixed in with Canada and
Cackling on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.


>From: csidles at isomedia.com
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: [Tweeters] Fill geese
>Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 06:08:50 -0800 (PST)
>
>Hey tweets, One of the best aspects of birding is that birds do fly,
>meaning anything can turn up around the next bend. Such was the case at
>the Fill yesterday. I was showing off my favorite place on earth to two
>relatives from Minneapolis. Frankly, the Fill was not producing, much to
>my chagrin. I told my jet-lagged relatives that I never go home until I
>see at least 20 species. They rolled their eyes and groaned under their
>breath - we were halfway down the loop trail and had seen only 5 species
>(including a Golden-crowned Kinglet, which is rare at the Fill). The bay
>was filled with ducks, as expected, but all except a couple Buffleheads
>were so far out that they appeared as mere specks. Just as I was opening
>my mouth to say something feeble like, "Well, *usually* the Fill is much
>better than this," we rounded the curve near the main pond and saw a flock
>of 6 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, grazing peacefully among the Canadas. I
>have never seen so many Greater White-fronted there in my life. I was so
>excited I couldn't tell my relatives what I was looking at. The best I
>could do was stutter, "There's a bunch of gggggg." It must have been
>rather comical to watch us then, as my son Alex (home for Christmas from
>the Marines and just as sharp-eyed a birder as ever) and my two relatives
>flashed their binoculars all around looking for whatever might be a ggggg.
>I finally managed to say "geese," and they homed in on the flock. As best
>we could tell before a dog flushed them, there were 5 juveniles and 1
>adult. Beautiful birds.
>
>After that, the Fill just kept giving and giving. Among the highlights:
>Cooper's Hawk polishing her bill on a branch
>Wood Ducks in breeding plumage
>Ruddy Duck (haven't been seeing too many of these at the Fill lately)
>Yellow-rumped Warblers (both kinds)
>Marsh Wren (I love to see them in winter)
>
>Altogether, we saw 31 species and heard an additional 3- pretty good for a
>winter's day. - Connie, Seattle
>
>csidles at isomedia.com
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Tweeters mailing list
>Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters