Hey tweets, the wind blew in a Bonaparte's Gull in breeding plumage to
Montlake Fill this afternoon. We used to get Bonaparte's in good
numbers back in the 1980s, when there was a log boom out near the 520
bridge where they liked to perch. They have become very scarce in
recent years, so it was a real treat to see this one.

I'm still going back and forth on whether the mother teal with 6
babies on Main Pond is a Blue-winged or a Cinnamon. She has a dark eye-
stripe, and her head and neck are lighter than the rest of her body
but not super-pale. The spot of whitish feathers on her face doesn't
extend very far, so she's a mixed bag of characteristics. Why she
couldn't just wear a "Hello, my name is..." sticker on her chest is
beyond me.

Least Sandpipers have been coming through in migration on their way
south nearly every day now for a week. Not in good numbers, sadly. I
think our mud habitat has become too woody for most of the shorebirds.
I'm keeping my little hopes up for rarities this fall, though, because
that is one of the biggest charms of birding. You never know what
you'll find around the next bend in the trail.

For me today, the next bend in the trail produced an adult Sharp-
shinned Hawk strolling along the verge of the service road leading
into the Dime Lot. I thought it was a pigeon at first, but it turned
out to be a hawk. I have never seen one en promenade a pied before,
like a Parisian strolling down Boulevard Montmartre in a Pissarro
painting. Insouciant, to say the least. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com




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