Hey tweets, it took me a long time to get out to the Fill today, due
to the attractions of hot coffee, warm heater, and soft couch.
Eventually, though, I had to ask myself: are you a birder or a potato?
As my husband says, "Those birds won't watch themselves, you know."

So, with hopes high for a wind-blown rarity, I set out. It was a
gorgeous day, despite the fact that most of the birds I saw only
briefly, as they went shooting by at 50 mph or more. The grass in the
fields is taller than I am and was blowing in waves like ocean swells.
Camas flowers are blooming in the prairies - tall spikes of lavender
flowers touched with deep purple/magenta accents. Vetch, with its
ladders of leaves, is blooming too in shades of white and deep pink.
The wild roses are open and divinely scented. Stop, when you get a
chance, and take a sniff.

An enormous insect hatch was underway wherever the trees or bushes
provided a wind-break. So dense were the swarms, they began to assume
weird shapes, morphing from human to animal to monster. They attracted
big flocks of swallows and swifts, who swooped through the swarms
scooping up the tiny insects the way whales eat krill (at least, I
assume so - the action was too fast for me to follow).

An Osprey showed its mastery of the wind by managing to hover in place
over the Lagoon. I think it was the only living thing that was
stationary - even I wobbled on my camp stool with the passing gusts.
It's a wonder I wasn't carried off like the Flying Nun by the wind
flapping my floppy hat. The only way I could keep it on my head at all
was to tighten the head-string so tight I still have grooves in my
forehead hours later. I hope they're not permanent.

Best bird of the day for me was a TURKEY VULTURE, circling over Hunn
Meadow West before disappearing north. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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