Hey tweets, a spectacular find this morning: two female MOUNTAIN
BLUEBIRDS were foraging in the short grass just west of the Main Pond,
then flew to forage in the southern edge of the blue forest. Doug
Parrott was luckily there to take photos. Usually when I see something
like this, I look around for someone to share it with, and no one
appears. As far as I know, bluebirds have been seen at the Fill only
one time before, on May 14, 1994.

Other birds of note:
two BAND-TAILED PIGEONS flying overhead;
two CALIFORNIA GULLS looking for worms in the frisbee playfield;
SAVANNAH SPARROWS are back in large numbers;
the BREWER'S BLACKBIRD colony is growing larger - many males were
doing the fandango on the helipad fence.
The CINNAMON TEAL pair that has hung around all winter appears to have
moved to the swamp that is now Surber grove.
WOOD DUCKS are here too,
and a FOX SPARROW.
A gorgeous WINTER WREN came out to sing, and
a YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER chimed in.

Finally, there is the weirdest looking BARN SWALLOW flying around the
southwest pond. It is extremely pale and might fool you into thinking
it is a Bank Swallow until you see its tail spots. There was a
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW flying around here yesterday.

The water is incredibly high everywhere on site. I've never seen it
worse. I plan to write to the lockmaster of the Ballard Locks today to
ask him to consider lowering the lake levels a bit for the rest of
this month and into early May. I don't know if it will do any good,
but I would like to try. Last year, the lake levels were high all
spring, and we had the worst shorebird migration in my memory. I'd
like to try to have more mud exposed this year, if possible. Such
mudflats in King County are probably the most endangered of all our
habitats. In case you would like to add your two cents, too, here is
contact information:

US Army Corps of Engineers Hiram M Chittenden Locks Lockmaster Govt
Locks
(206) 783-7000
3015 Nw 54th St, Seattle, WA 98107

- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com