Hey tweets, a lovely spring day at the Fill was made even lovelier by the presence of some 40 AMERICAN PIPITS, who were foraging in the area around Shoveler?s Pond and the Lone Pine Tree. I have never seen so many before. The UWBG students have been working on this area for the past couple of growing seasons, experimenting with various soils and mulches to see how prairie plants might grow. Much of the terrain is gravelly soil and grasses, roped off with twine strung between metal posts. One of the pipits decided the twine would make a fine perch, not realizing that the twine was pretty bendy. The bird got on and began to swing wildly back and forth, at which point, it raised its wings and tried sawing the air, like a slack-wire artist about to fall off, but no luck. Eventually, it had to let go with its toes and fluttered to the ground, adding some evidence that the origins of flight might very well have been from the top down, not the ground up.

Also on view today: 10,000 walkers for MS, a pair of Cinnamon Teals on Shoveler?s Pond, and hordes of Yellow-rumped Warblers in beautiful breeding plumage getting ready to head out for Alaska. A few Lincoln?s Sparrows and Ruby-crowned Kinglets are hanging around just a little while longer too.

Here is a poem for you today:

Pipits touched down briefly,
ate a seed or two, then took flight
into the empty blue sky,
one haunting pipeet fading behind
in the wind.

- Connie, Seattle

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