Subject: [Tweeters] Fill yesterday
Date: Jul 28 05:38:51 2009
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, Noise was the order of the day yesterday at the Fill. The
Bald Eagle teenagers were making known their disgruntlement with their
parents' view that it was time for the kids to exit the nest. Their
cries could be heard all over the neighborhood. Eventually, one of the
parents appeared with a snake, but a snake isn't going to go very far
satisfying two gigantic near-adults - trust me.

The Green Herons are out and about now, calling with surprisingly
piercing voices. They've been flying around the cottonwood grove down
at East Point in the mornings, calling as they fly. In the cattails
below, a Virginia Rail mom was calling attention to the fact that she
had found some food for the baby (or babies?) to share. Never did see
her or the kids, but the other day she nearly hit me when she flew
across the trail to get from the field to the Southeast Pond. I've
never seen a Virginia Rail flying before.

The shorebird migration through the Fill has been pretty good this
fall. Yesterday on the Main Pond, there was a Greater Yellowlegs (very
vocal specimen, especially when it saw me) and a Least. The Spotted
Sandpiper who has been living here showed up too, spots and all. Both
the Least and the Spotted decided to add their voices to the
yellowlegs in a little chorus of shorebird song.

Meanwhile in the bushes and trees, flocks of Bushtits were busy
foraging for insects almost too tiny to see. They blew in a little
gale from bush to bush, singing their high-pitched notes that sound to
me a lot like Cedar Waxwings - which were also present yesterday,
eating the newly ripe serviceberries (at least I think they were
serviceberries!). In the fields, the House Finches and American
Goldfinches have gathered to forage in the thistle and chicory. They
can't seem to do this without announcing their activities to all and
sundry. Their musical chipping is a beautiful sound of summer to me,
one of the very few things I welcome about summer. Speaking of which,
the sun had bleached out nearly all the blue of the sky yesterday
morning by 9 a.m., when I reached my melting point and oozed home.
I've been in the basement ever since.

Now here it is 5:30 a.m., already too hot for me, and yet the Fill is
calling. Who can resist? By the way, keep a wary eye out for fire
danger. Someone has been lighting a campfire at East Point, and I've
seen cigarette butts on the trails. Yesterday, a fellow birder picked
up an unlit match out there. You'd think that a species smart enough
to drive a car, go to the Moon, and fill out IRS tax forms would be
smart enough to know not to start fires near super-combustible prairie
grasses, but I guess not. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com