Hey tweets, I'm reminded by Riva's post about the Fill that we should
all probably note the birds we see when we go places, even if the birds
we find are not necessarily anything to write home about, so to speak.
Just because I'm still waiting for a smew or a tufted duck to show up
at the Fill doesn't mean I shouldn't be glad for a bufflehead. And I
am. I just haven't quite had the inspiration to mention it.

At any rate, I went to the Fill yesterday and found 41 species, which
is pretty darn good, considering the season (see below). However, I
could say that yesterday was characterized almost more for the birds I
*didn't" see: no starlings, no robins, no green-winged teals, no wood
ducks, no white-crowned sparrows. I'm sure these are all still around -
just the luck of the draw and some aggressive raptors, I think. A
couple of days ago, I found two Fox Sparrows in the brush east of the
greenhouses - very unusual for the Fill:

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Wigeon
Gadwall
Northern Shoveler
Canvasback (some beautiful males and females, close to shore for a
change)
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup (only 2)
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Bald Eagle (two dive-bombing the coot/wigeon flock, to no avail)
Rock Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Crow
Steller's Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch - Connie Sidles, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com