Hey tweets, My beloved Fill has been quietly satisfying lately. The
cold, clammy weather has kept people away so that at times it feels
like I'm in my own private preserve. Then another birder shows up, and
I realize that "my" preserve is even better than a private one: it
attracts people who care about the same things I do and who don't start
back-pedaling away from me as I talk endlessly about birds. On the
contrary. The other day, I was parked at the north end of the main
pond, drinking in the golden hues of autumn because bird activity was
down to zero and there was nothing else to drink in, but I was too lazy
to get up and find another parking place. Pretty soon, another birder
showed up and parked beside me on her camp stool, and we began to
schmooze about birds. Then two more people arrived with fold-up stools
and settled in. We were having quite an enjoyable gab-a-thon, and then
others noticed us from afar and began to home in, thinking no doubt
that we were on some kind of rarity. Nope, we were doing what is very
common at the Fill, enjoying each other's company out in the wild.

The birds in general have been pretty good lately, though somewhat
sporadic. The Fill continues to experience inordinately large numbers
of raptors, so the other birds have taken to skulking. Today, a
Red-tailed Hawk dove on a hapless juvenile White-crowned Sparrow, who
was innocently taking the avian version of a sponge bath near the
Wedding Rock (bathing in the dew on the grass). I don't think the hawk
got the sparrow, but regardless, it put a big damper on bird activity
in the area.

The best bird of the day for me was a glorious Common Loon, fishing out
in the lake just north and west of Webster Point. My son Alex, who is
home on leave, reminded me that when he was a boy, we used to see loons
fairly often. I haven't seen one in years, though, so this one was a
real treat. Also on view, Golden-crowned Kinglets, along with their
Ruby-crowned cousins, and plenty of Dark-eyed Juncos (both birds rather
rare for the Fill). The Winter Wrens continue to arrive. Today I found
two in the grove next to Surber, and another one in the cottonwoods
just south and west of the CUH building. They were all quite bold about
coming out to be viewed.

It was hard to leave. I'm not sure I could have, but the rain came and
that helped. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com