After many trips to the Montlake Fill in hopes of seeing the
sporadically reported COMMON TEAL, he finally showed for me at Shoveler?s Pond
this AM, acting for all the world like the bold, everyday bird that he
decidedly isn?t. Also present in that
pond were the pair of CINNAMON TEAL, sticking very close together, and a trio
of DUNLIN mingling with the Killdeer. A
MERLIN swooped over the area, low and fast.
Near the southwest pond, a pair of Common Yellowthroats were
?Churt?ing and foraging in the snowberries. Over the bay, I had my first five-swallow day of the year, with
BARN, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED and a
single CLIFF SWALLOW among the hordes of Tree and Violet-greens.
Even better birds were to be had around the open field
behind the CUH. At the far rear corner
of the fence, I watched as a female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD foraged along the
fenceline. She made about half a dozen
trips (and just as many more when I returned an hour or two later,) into this
flowerless area, picking carefully through the blackberries, bushes and grass,
nearly always flying back to the same hidden area in the trees with her
(unfortunately unseen) prize. This
behavior, coupled with the latish date, made me wonder if Rufous Hummingbirds
are breeding here again.
A late FOX SPARROW called from the blackberries within the
fence, and in the lichen-encrusted alders in the same area, a BROWN CREEPER
foraged silently. Among a small cloud of swallows over the field, my FOY VAUX?S
SWIFT fluttered stiffly overhead!

I checked all the areas that look good for bluebirds (wide
open with scattered perches,) but came up empty. With all the great consolatioin prizes, though, I won?t complain!
Jeff Bryant