Hey tweets, I think I have finally figured out how the Double-crested
Cormorants hang onto the light standards around the baseball diamond
at the Fill. These light standards are mounted on tall poles. They
consist of struts that stick out on straight on either side of the
center pole. Mounted on the struts are several lamps, covered by
shiny, curved reflectors. The cormorants love to perch on these light
standards and do so by the dozen. From what I can tell, the preferred
perches are the struts, which the cormorants grab onto by wrapping
their webbed feet around them. This gives them a secure hold. Even
when the wind blows, as it was doing ferociously yesterday, the
cormorants can hang on, although I think their knuckles were turning
white from the strain (assuming cormorants have knuckles, that is).
The birds swayed back and forth with each gust, like Jacks-in-the-Box
bobbing on springs, but they did not get blown off.

What's a lot harder to figure out is how the cormorants who are
perched on the curved reflectors of the lamps stay on. The reflectors
are smooth, highly polished metallic half-spheres with a surface that
looks as slippery as ice in a hockey rink. Yet the cormorants who
stand on them stick on so well they scarcely wave in the breeze. If
their feathers weren't being blown all cattywumpus by the wind, you'd
think the birds were statues mounted onto the lamps with rebar.
Obviously that isn't the case.

My theory is that the cormorants' feet , which look flat as pancakes,
are really convex. When they press them down onto the lamps, they
stick like suction cups. I bet if you were close enough, you could
here the thup! thup! thup! of the cups getting stuck and unstuck when
the birds move around. I suppose with suction cups like that, they
could walk up the sides of buildings if they wanted to.

I know the scientists out there in Tweetersville are saying now, "That
is the nuttiest thing I ever heard. Everyone knows that cormorants
have glue on the bottoms of their feet."

Ah, say I, but where do they *keep* the glue when they're not using
it? Eh?

Also on view at the Fill today, a TUNDRA SWAN out on the lake in the
company of a dozen Trumpeter Swans; a MOURNING DOVE foraging in
Wahkiakum Lane near the westernmost wooden sign; a REDHEAD out on the
lake; and a VIRGINIA RAIL that called out when I indelicately sneezed
near its cattails.

In other news, the Lone Pine Tree has (sadly) blown down. There is a
nubbin of a stump left; the rest of the burned tree is lying on its
side by the Loop Trail. The Bald Eagles of Talaris are bringing stick
to the nest. Can new eagles be far behind? The UW Athletics Dept.
continues to construct a new track (supposedly to be floated on
pontoons over the spongy ground) in the field just south of the
helipad. I heard that the field north of Clark Road is going to
accommodate the displaced softball teams, which will be playing on
artificial turf just as soon as all the grass can be dug up. Too bad
for the ducks, geese, and gulls that eat here. On the plus side, the
Dime Lot has been turned over to the CUH and will eventually become a
wetland.- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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