Subject: [Tweeters] Cattle egret appears
Date: Nov 8 12:28:09 2007
From: csidles at isomedia.com - csidles at isomedia.com


Hey tweets, The Cattle Egret showed up today at the Fill around noon. I
had been looking for it since 9:30 a.m. and had pretty much given up when
a birder came by the main pond to say the bird was perched on the
bleachers of the baseball diamond. This is not what you might call a shy,
stay-in-the-rural-outreaches-away-from-people type bird.

I hoofed it over to the bleachers to discover that the egret had flown
north to the far end of the grass field. It was foraging right next to the
parking lot. As I watched, a UW student walked right by the bird - neither
one of them looked up. They were like two New Yorkers passing each other
on the street, whose motto is: "Don't make eye contact."

I remember several years ago, there was a Kumlien's Iceland Gull in the
Simpson Paper Company parking lot. When John and I drove up, we could tell
the bird was still around because the numerous birders with expensive
optics were milling around talking to each other - it was clear they had
had their fill of seeing the bird. John and I asked where it was, and one
of them pointed to a beat-up pickup truck. Sure enough, the bird was
walking around under the truck. With its injured leg and its typical gull
air of mine-mine-mine-mine, it was a real junkyard bird. The Cattle Egret
gives me a bit of the same feeling - not that I'm complaining, mind you.
it's wonderful to see this bird, no matter its urbanized habits. - Connie,
Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com