Tweets,

I felt the need to respond to this. I have had many species of migrants in my yard over the 19 years we've lived here, but I swear those numbers have fallen off in recent years. When I read about great numbers of birds at the fill or at Green Lake or the Columbia River, I become ever more convinced that such birds really like water, as they are consistently seen in greater numbers at and near water. A friend of ours who lives a lot closer to Lake Washington always seems to have more birds around, even though our yards are quite comparable as bird habitats. I don't think it is any inherent need in the birds to be near a water body, but instead that insects are more common near water, especially when weather conditions aren't the greatest, and the birds are programmed to seek out water. I assume some of you have noticed the not-so-great weather conditions this spring.

Other than a Hermit Thrush and single Calliope and Rufous Hummingbirds, I have seen not a single migrant in this yard this spring, even though I'm home most days, looking out the window into a lush backyard a lot, and out in the yard at intervals.

If anyone is contemplating a move, try to relocate near water!

Dennis

On May 12, 2011, at 12:00 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 10:01:08 -0700
> From: Connie Sidles <constancesidles at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Fill fiesta
> To: TWEETERS tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID: <13DE239E-A50C-4EE8-A7B9-9D374BC71E98 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hey tweets, I hope you are sitting down because this discovery is sure
> to astonish you: The natural color of our sky is *blue,* not gray as
> we had thought. What a pleasure it was this dawn to see colors in the
> sky instead of monochome. We had the pale pink, gold, and blue of a
> sunrise lighting up the clouds, instead of hiding behind them. Mt.
> Rainier was glorious.
>
> The birds were pretty great, too. Okay, fabulous. There were literally
> hundreds and hundreds of warblers everywhere, but most concentrated in
> the alder grove kitty-corner from the kiosk. Most were Yellow-rumps,
> but mixed in were also Wilson's, Yellow, Orange-crowned, BLACK-
> THROATED GRAY, and even a Common Yellowthroat in the brambles below.
> Also in that grove was a CASSIN'S VIREO, not your everyday bird at the
> Fill. It was singing in tune with a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE - actually a
> chorus of at least three pewees. Atop the snag in Sidles Swamp nearby
> was perched an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. It stayed up there a long time,
> fluffing out its white patches and catching the rays. Hammond's
> Flycatchers were also present. As I was enjoying the flycatcher
> fiesta, 4 WESTERN TANAGERS flew into the cottonwoods. You would think
> that a big yellow bird with a flaming red head would stand out like
> someone with their hair on fire, but such is not the case. The
> tanagers like to hide their heads behind a big leaf, and their yellow
> bodies somehow manage to blend into the green of the leaves, making
> them extremely hard to see. Not at all like the 4 CEDAR WAXWINGS that
> shared the same tree, and whose dove-gray/brown bodies stood out like
> beacons.
>
> Other birds on view today: at least one pair of Ring-necked Ducks has
> been hanging out in the slough between Canoe Island and the mainland.
> Given the lateness of the date, and the lovey-doveyness of the pair,
> perhaps they will stay here to nest. Large numbers of Great Blue
> Herons are coming to the Fill to hunt for fish, frogs, and snakes to
> take back to their flourishing heronry near Drumheller Fountain. So
> crowded is the landscape, they seem to have made up their minds to
> tolerate people being close. I've come within 6 feet of one without
> flushing it, not necessarily the most comfortable experience in the
> world. The bird was almost as tall as I was and had a much pointier
> beak. - Connie, Seattle

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20110512/3761b362/attachment.htm