Subject: [Tweeters] Spencer Island today
Date: Jan 26 20:49:50 2008
From: Constance Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, looking at the weather patterns this morning and adhering
to my strict rule of "no driving in the snow" (a rule I formed as a
child when my Illinois-born Dad pooh-poohed Seattleites' fear of even 2
inches of snow and drove our car onto the neighbor's garage roof), I
decided that the best place for morning birding would be Spencer
Island. I figured the snow storms coming up from Chehalis wouldn't
arrive until afternoon, and the frigid blast from the Gulf of Alaska
would be tardy as well.

What a felicitous choice. The south loop trail has been fixed up into a
stunningly beautiful walkway, with a dike trail that puts you
conveniently above all the action in the marshes and sloughs. All is
"paved" with small gravel that's easy to walk on. New bridges take you
across the little straits that tie the ponds together here and there.
No need for a mud room when you get back - you never touch a speck. And
the winter scenery here is beautiful.

At one point, I set down my camp stool and watched the warming
temperatures melt the frozen ponds. The clumps of cattails stood up
against a backdrop of snow-dusted foothills. The skies were pewter,
with the clouds trailing brushstrokes of rain not quite reaching the
earth, a sumie painting more beautiful than anything a mere human could
draw. Below me, two paddling Northern Pintails etched silver V's into
the gleaming water. Above me, matching V's of wigeons flew by calling
softly to each other. They fell silent as they passed over my head,
allowing me to hear the gentle whoosh of their wings.

I began to realize that birding appeals most richly to two senses: the
sense of sight and the sense of hearing. In winter, these two senses
are especially ravished because the gray light makes all colors stand
out, even the subtle browns and beiges of the lesser lights of the
avian world, and the cold weather tends to keep a lot of people - and
their noise pollution - at home. Of course, at Spencer Island, it helps
if your sense of smell is poor. The sewage ponds were pretty ripe this
morning. Maybe only a birder would call this wildlife area beautiful,
but who minds a little stench when you can see three male Cinnamon Teal
in full breeding plumage paddling about in the settling pond? I have
never before had the privilege of seeing these summer birds when the
ambient temperature was below freezing. They looked perfectly happy in
the semi-arctic conditions. I guess that their feathers are as good at
insulating them as our more common winter ducks' feathers are. Truly,
the Finns have it right: there is no bad weather; there is only bad
clothing.

Here's everything I saw this morning:
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
snow geese (a huge V flying over)
mallard
gadwall
American wigeon
green-winged teal
northern shoveler
cinnamon teal
northern pintail
lesser scaup
bufflehead
American coot
glaucous-winged gull
California gull
mew gull
Wilson's snipe
bald eagle
northern harrier
red-tailed hawk
Cooper's hawk
rock pigeon
pileated woodpecker (very noisy pair)
American crow
ruby-crowned kinglet
black-capped chickadee
Bewick's wren
European starling
red-winged blackbird
song sparrow
Lincoln's sparrow
spotted towhee - Connie Sidles, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com