Hi Tweeters,

There was lots of activity this morning at the Fill, especially early on. Driving over there, I was slightly annoyed by the thought that due to yesterday?s Husky football game, there would be lots of loud crows hanging out, drowning out other avian activity. An especially raucous, focused group of crows actually led me to my highlight of the day, as they harassed a Barn Owl, which I viewed briefly in flight before it dove deep into cover south of the CUH.

Even all the leftover trash from the game came with a silver lining, as there were tons of gulls in and around the large parking lot, including multiple California Gulls, my first definitive sighting of this species at the Fill.

Other highlights among the 59 species:
- silent Swan flyby ? 6 flew by together, and they looked like probable Trumpeters through my scope
- Horned Grebe ? 1 out on Lake Washington, and amusingly, this guy floated one way past a Western Grebe, and the Western then made an about-face, and proceeded to leisurely tail his new friend!
- American Pipit ? several flybys, only landing briefly
- Western Meadowlark ? 1 giving very accommodating views atop a bush
- Killdeer ? 2 flew over as I was leaving, giving me my first sighting of this species at the Fill in over 2 months!
- Lincoln's Sparrow - sparrows were somewhat tough to come by this morning at the Fill, but there were multiple Lincoln's where the tree sparrow was seen, and this spot has been very good for Lincoln's in the past month.

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA