Hey tweets, the Belted Kingfishers were back at the Fill today, after
a two-month hiatus. I call the male Gary Coopfisher because he is the
strong, silent type. He may very well be the son of another
uncharacteristically silent kingfisher, Silent Cal, who graced the
Fill a couple of years ago. Gary Coopfisher's mate chatters all the
time, the way you'd expect a kingfisher to behave.

Also on view today were two BLACK SWIFTS, appearing for a brief
aerobatic demo over the picnic table and CUH building. My, I love
those birds.

No shorebirds were present at Main Pond this morning except for the
usual Killdeer clack, but they were joined today by three babies, so
that was very cute. Over at SW Pond, a Virginia Rail was out on the
trail, making a big racket. I suspect she was warning her little ones
to stay hidden from the big birder, or maybe she was trying to tell me
to get a move on. With rails, it's hard to interpret their
expressions, although they always leave the general impression that
they vant to be alone. (You can see I'm on a bit of an old movies kick
today, courtesy of a stray neuron of mine that told me I had to listen
to a YouTube version of Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the wabbit." Don't
know what prompted that particular neuron to fire up, but between that
and the birds of the Fill, I'm smiling still.)

Also of note: baby Northern Shovelers in the slough near the New
Wooden Bridge; Peregrine Falcon paying fairly frequent visits; a
Merlin on occasion; and a *very* tame juvenile Red-tailed Hawk who
seems to like the Lone Pine Tree (and can be approached so closely you
can't use your binoculars). The Wood Ducks are all in the scruffy
stage of life right now, but at least they are coming out into the
open in good numbers. You can almost always see some in Waterlily
Cove. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com




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