What I call "Bushtit vs. Underpants".

Down in the Bay area there's a park, and some time in the past someone tossed a pair of underpants into the branches of a tree in that park. It must have been a while back because those underpants are close to disintegration now, hanging in a grey clump with chaffs of thread and elastic sticking out all over.

And this Bushtit came along, looking for that perfect bit of thread with which to weave its nest. The bushtit grabbed one of those frayed bits of elastic and pulled. And pulled. And pulled. The elastic, however, was still attached. Bushtit pulled, flapping full speed reverse. Elastic stretched. Bushtit pulled some more. Elastic stretched some more. Bushtit did not let go. Bushtit did not let go even as its wingpower began to fail and the elastic slowly, inexorably, returned to its pre-pulled length, Bushtit in tow.

So Bushtit tried again.

The score while I watched: Bushtit 0; Underpants 3.

Happy birding,
Catherine Alexander
Lakewood neighborhood
South Seattle



-----Original Message-----
From: phicks at accessgrace.org
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 2:15 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] teased by a bushtit

Tweets,
Monday I did some birding in Cannon Beach. Had to do a double-take on a bushtit foraging among some willows. The face was washed dull yellow, with particularly saturated yellow on the forehead. (What would have first flashed through YOUR mind?) It must have picked up pollen from the many flowering "pussy-willows." Tried to no avail to find a puffin around Haystack and Ecola SP. South of Haystack saw a darker-mantled gull (with blackish hue, not blueish, and rough-looking texture; smaller spots on wingtips) in with a bunch of Westerns hanging around "birdfeeders" at a beach hotel/resort. I'm guessing a "southern-type" Western.
Good birding!
Paul Hicks
phicks AT accessgrace.org
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