Hi Tweets-

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time around the fill watching many animals power-eating as much as they possibly could to prepare themselves for the night and "keep things running" in the cold. It reminded me of the world championship eating contests when those folks chow down as many hotdogs as they can for their particularly unique sport (my apologies to the competitive eaters out there). Some interesting sightings included:

2 deer mice, in different areas, running back and forth from clump of grass, rose, etc. eating as much as possible and not really caring about being in the open or the red-tailed hawk watching the entire area.

15 or so snow geese - were in the field to the north, towards 45th and looking out to QFC. They were busy feeding along the treeline and weaving in and out of the low bush there - interesting that they were sticking kinda close to cover rather than out in the open. Had another solo snow goose along the water's edge, feeding like mad on every piece of grass - and pretty much oblivious to various cross country skiers.

3 nutria - two of which looked like the cold weather was doing them in - lumbering in the snow and eating when possible - snow is not so good for you when you are from warm parts of South America.

11 Trumpter swans out in the cut area, along with 15 or so Canada geese (lessers).

tons of A. wigeon
gw teal
mallard
n. shoveler
h. merganser
gadwall
ring-necked duck
lesser scaup
bufflehead
A. coot
- didn't notice any grebes, which was strange I thought, but I didn't pick through the waterfowl due to losing my light so may have missed some. Not obvious though...


killdeer
n. flicker
Lincoln's sparrow
song sparrow
gc sparrow
- sparrows were all numerous and feeding like mad (tried to find a fox sparrow, but nope)
A. robin
Bewick's wren
A. Crow
RT hawk
Bald Eagle (3 - the adult pair often there and one first year - adults were laying waste to the coots and giving sound-offs to the JV to "get lost buddy")
bushtit
bc chickadee
great blue heron
A. goldfinch

and many cross country skiers, plus more snow - where is that darn snow shovel???


Cheers-
Chris Anderson
N. Seattle
cdanders AT hotmail DOT com


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