Hey tweets, yesterday at the Fill was very quiet; one might almost say dead.
No sparrows, no finches, no towhees, no... well, you get the picture.

I should know by now that a place as vibrant as the Fill is never that
silent without good cause. Sure enough, as I sat grumpily on my camp stool
at the main pond, muttering about global warming somehow discouraging the
birds at the Fill, young people leaving beer cans to float aimlessly among
the lily pads and somehow discouraging the birds at the Fill, and generally
ranting about "what this world is coming to" and somehow discouraging the
birds at the Fill, a COOPER'S HAWK burst out of its hiding place and flapped
across the water. Instantly, a cloud of swallows gave their alarm call,
circling above the hawk like midge flies in a mating frenzy. This quickly
attracted all the male red-winged blackbirds in the area, who converged on
the poor hawk and began pecking it in flight. The hawk burrowed into the
leafy sanctuary of a willow tree, but that did not satisfy the swallows and
blackbirds. In short order, the hawk came out of the tree and headed off
across the lake toward Foster Island. Normal activity resumed.

Never a dull moment at my favorite place on earth - even when the moment
may, at first glance, seem dull. After the hawk left, a SPOTTED SANDPIPER
began foraging along the shores of the main pond. A male GADWALL gave a
female quite a thrill - somewhat late for mating activity, I thought. A late
BUFFLEHEAD resumed diving for food, and two ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS chased each
other hither and yon.

The rain and mosquitoes finally drove me back home, but not before I logged
34 species. Here's everything I found:

pied-billed grebe
great blue heron
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
northern shoveler
cinnamon teal
bufflehead
Cooper's hawk
ring-necked pheasant
killdeer
spotted sandpiper
glaucous-winged gull
Anna's hummingbird
northern flicker
American crow
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
barn swallow
cliff swallow
bushtit
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren (heard)
marsh wren (heard)
American robin
European starling
cedar waxwing
song sparrow
savannah sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird
house finch
American goldfinch - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com