Howdy Tweets,

I started my weekend a little later than intended yesterday (Friday), and
found myself waiting for a bus next to the Medicinal Herb Garden on the UW
Seattle campus a little before 7:00 pm. The weather was gorgeous and it
felt like a genuine spring evening: clear skies, not too cold, and the
birds were singing.

A group of chickadees was vocalizing nearby and I was drawn away from the
bus stop. I was surprised to see a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet perched up high in
a bare tree and ocassionally fluttering up about 15 feet before returning
to its perch. This struck me as unusual so I watched it a bit longer and
realized that the cute little fella was decimating a group of insects. I
didn't have optics, so can't say much about the insects, but I would
estimate that they were about as big as a grain of rice. Its hard to take
sides against something as cute as a Kinglet...but it was hard not to feel
a little bad for those "bugs." While I watched the Kinglet must have eaten
20 - 30 insects, which was more than half of the group.

As the Kinglet brought it's meal to a close I was startled by loud
squawking behind me as a group of Great Blue Herons burst from the treetops
behind me. The group flew in a big loop around the area and settled back
into the treetops: I counted 43 birds! If they all breed successfully it
is going to get pretty noisy around that part of campus...

So, the weekend started a little bit late, but with a bang!

Happy "Spring" (it is snowing outside my house right now, ha!)
~Joe Meredith
Seattle
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