Hey tweets, I hope you're all sitting down because I want to report a
bird I saw NOT at the Fill. It was a TRUMPETER SWAN swimming
gracefully on Green Lake in Seattle. I wasn't birding, I hasten to
add. I was out shopping for Christmas, but it's pretty hard to miss a
swan when you see it spang in the middle of such a small lake. I did
talk to it about how nice the Fill is, encouraging it to pay a visit,
but you know swans: they don't listen to anybody.

At the Fill, by the way, was a Western Meadowlark burbling part of its
song. A male Eurasian Wigeon was in amongst the bazillion Americans on
the lake. And I got to see one of my favorite things of all the bird
kingdom: a backlit male Hooded Merganser. When the sun shines through
its lifted crest, you can see the outline of its skull through the
coconut-ice cream feathers. A glorious sight. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com