Hey tweets, What's black and white and red all over? A birder's answer
to this childhood riddle has got to be the male Buffleheads, flying
around the females in the Cove, and spreading out their ruby-red feet
for splash-down. With the sun backlighting these living rubber
duckies, their feet glowed like rubies. I was entranced and could
hardly bring myself to leave. However, a gazillion crows making a
ruckus drew me over to the greenhouse area, hoping to see whatever it
was the crows were harassing. It turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk.
No big deal, you might think, except there were three Red-tailed Hawks
at the Fill yesterday, and only one was drawing the ire of the crows.
I think it was because the crows figured they could handle only one
hawk at a time. It was funny to watch the straggler crows fly by the
other two hawks, pause in flight as if wondering why these guys were
so alone, and then fly on to where the party was happening.

Two Band-tailed Pigeons perched on the wire near the greenhouses were
plumpily exposing themselves to predation, but I suppose they figured
the hawk that was being annoyed by the crows had enough on its agenda
already, and what falcon in its right mind would venture forth with so
many crows around? On the other hand, maybe I'm giving the pigeons too
much credit for ratiocination. The pigeons might just have been too
stupid to realize their danger. They do have awfully small heads for
their size.

After a lapse of several days not going to the Fill (due to book
events and the like), it was great to walk around this beautiful place
and see what everyone was up to. I'm going to do my best in the next
week or so to scope out all the birds I can find, in preparation for
Seattle Audubon's Big Day Potluck and Book Reading on Dec. 13. In case
you haven't heard, Seattle Audubon is sponsoring a book reading for my
new book, In My Nature. But really it's more of a celebration of our
birding community and our involvement with the Fill.

We will gather at the Center for Urban Horticulture at 3 p.m.,
schmooze for a while, and then at 3:30 we will break into groups. Each
group will bird a portion of the Fill for half an hour. Then we'll
gather again at the CUH to tally all the birds we have found on the
site. While we tally, we'll spoon up delicious soups, crackers, and
drinks (that's the potluck part), and I will do a reading. Books will
be available for purchase and signing. I think the afternoon will be a
riot, and I hope you will all come and bring your most favorite soup.
I'm bringing split pea soup and debating about whether to bring matzo
ball soup too. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com