Subject: [Tweeters] Fill yesterday
Date: Jan 18 15:49:25 2012
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, I dodged raindrops and snowflakes yesterday at the Fill,
but alas, the weather was too much for me. I ended up not even walking
the Loop Trail, after starting out on East Wahkiakum and getting as
far as the kiosk - a distance of 20 feet, maybe. Conditions were just
too rugged. Sergeant Preston of the Yukon might have managed it, but
he was a Mounty.

After being forced back into my warm car, I pondered my strategy.
Birds or ice-rink driving? I live on top of a very steep hill, and
much as I love the Fill, I didn't want to get stranded there for a day
and a half. On the other hand, sometimes bad weather produces good
birds. I decided to do some car-birding until the last possible moment.

In the course of driving here and there like a motorized butterfly, I
saw a flash of white tail feathers on the playfield north of Clark
Road. It turned out to be one of at least 10 American Pipits foraging
on the little bits of green grass still showing through the slush.
They were accompanied by a slew of gulls trying to pull out worms. I
have rarely seen so much gull variety: Ring-billed, Mew, California,
Western, Thayer's, and Glaucous-winged.

Now that I really am snowed in at my house, I'm glad I made the effort
to get out yesterday, even if it was only for 20 minutes. Looking out
my window as I sit next to two heaters going full blast, I am reminded
once again that the birds don't have the luxury of being able to go
inside on such days. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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