Hey tweets, Kevin asked when my book would be coming out. It should
be at the Port on Oct. 16. Then it has to clear customs, which can
take up to 3 weeks. So by mid-November, books will be here. I'll keep
you posted about where/how to get a hold of it, if you want, and about
events planned around it.

On another issue, the white board is proceeding slowly but surely. The
CUH has signed a contract with a builder, and things should start
appearing soon. There will be a white board as well as a cork board
behind a locked case. I'm lobbying to have a key kept with the CUH
receptionist so anyone can post sightings or pin up photos. I will
have a key, too. Photographers out in tweeterville: please start
thinking about making paper copies of your gorgeous photos so we can
post them on the kiosk. I'm hoping to start a file in the library of
these photos so we can build up a photographic record of what's out
there - not just the rarities, but also the everyday birds that are
anything but ordinary to us.

Speaking of which, yesterday was very quiet and a little weird. For
example, I saw a Green Heron but no Great Blues. Hmph. Birds were
present but in small numbers. Has fall migration stopped already? We
did see a big influx of migrants in August, which I don't remember
seeing in years past. Perhaps the rest of fall migration (at least for
the warblers, vireos, flycatchers, thrushes) will be stragglers. The
plump and stupid-looking Mourning Dove who has been hanging out at the
burn for the past several weeks has been missing recently. I suspect
the Four Riders of the Apocalypse - the Merlin, Peregrine, Cooper's,
and Northern Harrier - might have scared it off, if it had any sense
at all, which I doubt.

Raptors have been plentiful at the Fill lately, and indescribably
beautiful. Doug Plummer and I were out at the burn the other day when
a female Merlin came rocketing out of the black hole and shot across
the burn at warp speed. If we had blinked, we would have missed it.
You don't expect such speed from something biological. A Northern
Harrier has begun to pay visits. She's quite spectacular, but be
careful. The Cooper's who makes the Fill a regular stopover has plenty
of white, fluffy feathers around its tail that can look like a white
rump patch at certain angles. As for the Peregrine, she's muscular and
vocal. Listen for a kind of piping call repeated quickly and often. If
you hear it, leap up from your camp stool and gyrate madly while you
do a 360 scan of the sky (making nearby teenagers gawk). That's what I
do, anyway. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com