Hey tweets, no sign of the Red-necked Phalarope this morning, so Nick
Allison, Jeffrey Bryant, and I were all bummed out down at the point,
kvetching about it. I kept telling myself my new zen mantra:
Liveinthemoment, liveinthemoment, liveinthemoment, as I tried not to
let my disappointment overwhelm the true wonders that were
omnipresent: the flock of nine Least Sandpipers wheeling and feeding
at the Main Pond; the Green Heron landing in the willow snag with head-
feathers raised up; the Common Yellowthroats at the south end jumping
from ground level to snag an insect; the Spotted Sandpiper bobbing his
rear end even when he preened; the very dark MERLIN that flew right at
me until I thought it was going to take my hat off as prey, chased by
Barn Swallows until everyone was out of sight.

But no matter how many wonders I saw, the other Connie inside was
sneering: You missed the phalarope. Badbirder, badbirder, badbirder.

So what came out was the dark matter. "Nick and I missed the
phalarope," I told Jeff, "and we haven't seen anything else very
unusual either, have we, Nick?"

But before Nick could open his mouth to say (as he probably would)
that we had still seen some absolutely fabulous birds, Jeff said, "Oh
unusual, like that OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER there, perhaps?"

Sure enough, spang up against the sky in the treeline just north of
the cottonwood grove where the burn leaped the Loop Trail was an
absolutely stunning Olive-sided Flycatcher. It is only the fourth
record I have of one at the Fill since 1895. It was perched at the top
of one of the little trees near the marsh and would fly out to catch
an insect, then return to the same branch or a nearby one. We got
great looks at its white stripe up the middle of its front, and every
now and then we could see its white tufts on the sides of the rump.

Jeff said I should complain more, since we got such great results, so
as a public service, I will commit to start complaining right away
about longspurs and larks. If any of you out there have other birds
you'd like to see show up at the Fill, let me know, and I'll start
complaining about them, too. I can't guarantee that your actual bird
will appear, but maybe some other mega-rarity will.

Here's everything I saw today:
Pied-billed Grebe
Green Heron
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Gadwall
Cinnamon Teal
Bald Eagle
Cooper's Hawk
Merlin
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon
Vaux's Swift
Anna's Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Bewick's Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat
(note: Yesterday: Yellow Warbler; Orange-crowned Warbler)
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com