Hello Tweeters,

Given the promise of a sunny start to the day, Bill and I hauled
ourselves down to the Montlake Fill at sunrise to see what would turn up.
Mist was still on the still-empty Shoveler's Pond and the cove to the east
of the Fill. Among the many ducks out in the cove was one Canvasback, among
some Ring-necked Ducks. As we walked toward the Main Pond a noisy group of
wigeons flew overhead and landed not too far out in the lake. I put the
scope on them and was surprised to see, among a group of five or six birds,
two male Eurasian wigeons. They didn't sit still and kept making wigeon
noises and flapping about and then all flew off. I wondered if those
foreign wigeons had found some Eurasian females. Pretty exciting!

Over in the Lagoon we were again surprised, this time by a
Common Goldeneye. I can't remember seeing one at the Fill before. It was
floating very quietly, hardly twitching a feather.

The sun had burned away some few, low clouds and was shining
into all the bushes encouraging the smaller birds to come out. On the Loop
trail just north of the Southwest Pond sparrows started popping up: Song
Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrow, then a gorgeous little Lincoln's Sparrow.
Really a stunner in the sunlight. Now we wandered up the road that leads
into the Dime Lot and concentrated on the blackberry bushes, where we were
lucky to find a Fox Sparrow along with finches and a Spotted Towhee, all
sunbathing.

Finally on our way back toward the CUH, in the grove of big
cottonwoods and alder close to the trails, we found another neat bird, a
Brown Creeper. These are just the highlights of an unusually birdy morning,
for us at least.

Good birding, Charlotte Byers, Seattle