Hey tweets, I thought I'd try to spend the whole day at the Fill
yesterday. I've done this a few times before, and it is like an
out-of-body experience: your brain disconnects from ordinary, human
reality and enters the birds' world, giving you bird-brain. Bud
Anderson first put me on to the pleasures of this kind of thing. I
joined him one year for an entire day of following a radio-tagged
Gyrfalcon. The gyr started the day by flying directly over our heads,
giving us a curious eye, then perched for hours on a fence post. Hours.
Then she gave us a thrill by lifting her tail - I thought I was going
to see an expulsion, but false alarm. And so it went. The falcon's
life, it turns out, was occupied mostly by inactivity, broken up by an
occasional foray to find something to eat. The first few hours were an
exercise in fighting boredom, but gradually I fell into the falcon's
rhythm until by the end of the day, I was nearly comatose. I don't
remember ever feeling more relaxed while still upright.

Being humans, with schedules, we can't enter the birds' world like this
very often. But yesterday I came close. If I had been dressed a little
more warmly and dryly, I would have lasted until dusk. As it was, I
managed to keep going from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., when the wind picked
up and the rain started to move in. I was glad to head back to my warm
car and house - the birds had only their feathers to keep them warm and
dry.

Best birds of the day:
The REDHEAD is still out on the lake. It tends to stay in a huge raft
of mixed ducks, including dozens of CANVASBACKS, several COMMON
GOLDENEYES and a few NORTHERN PINTAILS.

Ten TRUMPETER SWANS are still hanging around, including three immatures.

A HERRING GULL was striding along in the frisbee field, hunting worms
with the other gulls.

Two of the three WESTERN MEADOWLARKS have returned. There were three
before the blizzards of the last month.

PINE SISKINS were in a feeding frenzy among the alders near the CUH
building.

It was a great day. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com