Hi Tweeters,

I did a very leisurely morning walkabout at the Montlake Fill, and then I came
back for a shorter late afternoon trip! I didn't find any rare birds, but
I found good diversity, with 55 total species.

The highlight occurred in the afternoon, when standing by main pond, my eyes
were drawn to a Peregrine Falcon in flight, but I was quickly distracted by a
calling Wilson?s Snipe flying overhead. As I was searching again for the falcon, I
instead saw a soaring Northern Harrier, to cap off probably my coolest one
minute ever at the Fill!

Other highlights were:
- 3 Western Meadowlark south of the central pond
- 1 Purple Finch, the first one I?ve found at the Fill
- Warblers ? the air was thick with the calls of many flying
Yellow-rumped, and there were at least half a dozen Orange-crowned Warblers,
including 1 Orestera, and a couple Common Yellowthroat
- Western Grebe ? A tip from Connie Sidles led me to 2 by
the UW boat shellhouse
- 1 pair of Cinnamon Teal and 3 Northern Pintail
- A large adult Cooper?s Hawk aggressively came through,
with waves of robins and waxwing and goldfinch frantically making way, almost
like a school of fish fleeing a shark
- As reported earlier, there were multiple groups of Greater
White-fronted Geese around

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA