Hi Tweeters,
I toured The Fill (AKA Montlake Fill and Union Bay Natural Area
northeast of Husky Stadium) Tuesday afternoon particularly wanting to
get pictures of the hooded mergansers that were mentioned in an earlier
post. They were there (four of them), but they wisely kept themselves
in the brush on the east side of the big pond, so the pictures were less
than mediocre but the day was glorious. There are several thousand
waterfowl in Union Bay right now, so The Fill/UBNA is well-worth a visit
with a spotting scope.

As I was returning to the Urban Horticulture parking lot, hundreds
of crows were flying in to settle into the trees near the UW
baseball/soccer fields. In one flight there was a crow that appeared to
be flying normally at 90-100 feet except that three times over a
distance of perhaps one-quarter-mile it dipped down slightly as if it
were catching something out of the air. None of the dozens of other
crows in the flight exhibited this behavior. It was very cold and I
didn't see any insects flying. Do crows engage in mid-air flycatching.
Anyone know another explanation for this behavior?

In passing I am going to rename the Union Bay Natural Area yet
again. I love the place, but it has about the same relation to natural
that someone who has just been raped has to serenity. The best we can
say is that it is in recovery, so for me it is the Union Bay
Rehabilitation Area (UBRA). Hang the bureaucrats who want to use
"natural" the way that cereal boxes do.

Dale

--
Dale Chase
(AKA ravenintherain)
Seattle, Washington
ccorax at blarg.net