Subject: [Tweeters] Fill today
Date: Jul 16 13:48:41 2012
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, the great thing about wild critters is that they are wild.
They don't always go where they should or do what's expected.

Today at the Fill, a Semipalmated Sandpiper was on Main Pond, off
course from its supposed eastern migratory route. I spotted it first
on the southwest side of the pond, where it was foraging in a
leisurely way. An hour later, it obligingly flew across the pond to
land almost at my feet, where it proceeded to give me view of front,
left, right, center, like a runway model showing off the latest
number. In the middle of the show, a Rufous Hummingbird showed up and
fed from the Purple Loosestrife growing among the willow wands. And
here I thought Purple Loosestrife was perfectly useless.

Also on view today:
A Down Woodpecker male cleaning house at the Tree Swallow snag at SW
Pond - he was throwing out surprisingly large feathers.

The female teal with 6 chicks on Main Pond now has only 4,
unfortunately. The sun came out just as she approached the east shore,
where I was sitting, and for the first time I was able to get a really
good look at her bill. She is definitely a Cinnamon Teal, not Blue-
winged, as I had hoped. Still a great bird.

A Belted Kingfisher pair has taken up fishing on Main Pond, the first
kingfishers I've seen here since last January. They are both
surprisingly quiet for kingfishers, she being slightly more garrulous
than he. The male belongs to the Gary Cooper type of guy: strong but
silent.

Today the air was so still in the morning, when the fog hung low over
the Fill, that a Tree Swallow swooping over the water left a set of
ripples on the surface, just from the wind of its passage, the merest
caress. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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