Subject: [Tweeters] Fill on Saturday
Date: Aug 19 05:51:06 2007
From: Constance Sidles - csidles at isomedia.com


Hey tweets, as the light dawns this Sunday morning and the sound of
drizzle on the windows reminds me that fall really is here, I thought
I'd post about my sightings yesterday, on the theory that I might not
be able to bird today unless the rain lets up. I got to the Fill
yesterday at 7 a.m., a very good time to go because the air is usually
still then. It's a lot easier to see birds when the cottonwood leaves,
alders and willows aren't flapping around like Jimmy Durante waving his
hat as he exits stage right. The birding was productive yesterday, but
the birds didn't make it easier. I really had to work for them. Having
said that, I found 44 species, a very good count for this time of year.
Best bird of the day was a HOUSE WREN, a bird I see only in migration
at the Fill. Others were:

pied-billed grebe (the mom grebe is still on her nest in the bay)
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
green heron (two flying across the lagoon at the blind)
Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
green-winged teal
northern shoveler
blue-winged teal
cinnamon teal
wood duck (I counted 18 out on the bay, and there were at least 3 on
the lagoon)
American coot
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs (on the main pond)
spotted sandpiper (doing their foraging on the lily pads - scope the
lilies carefully this time of year)
least sandpiper (one with a really long bill, but I couldn't turn it
into anything rarer)
glaucous-winged gull
Cooper's hawk (a pair seems to have moved in for the duration)
ring-necked pheasant
Vaux's swift
Anna's hummingbird
belted kingfisher
northern flicker
downy woodpecker
violet-green swallow (just 2 among the far more numerous barns)
barn swallow
Steller's jay
American crow
black-capped chickadee
house wren
Bewick's wren
American robin
cedar waxwing
European starling
yellow warbler
orange-crowned warbler
common yellowthroat
spotted towhee
savannah sparrow
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird (a juvenile)
American goldfinch
house finch

There also was a flycatcher catching flies on the main pond. It never
spoke, so I couldn't be sure what it was. I thought it might be a
Western Wood-pewee. It did have a crest-y look, was very brownish on
top and white below, no teardrop eyering, no yellow, some paleness
under the lower mandible but couldn't tell how much, and it flicked its
tail frequently. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com