Hey tweets, I?m giving a slideshow lecture/class on avian love on April 26 at CUH. If you?re interested in signing up, please email me privately off-line and I will send you the information.

The Fill today was windy, rainy, and unbirdy. All the Yellow-rumps seem to have left in a body, though perhaps they were just hunkered down to escape the rain.

Cinnamon Teal pairs are on every pond, seemingly, so it looks to be a great year for them; babies will soon be on the way. The only other ducks present in numbers were Ring-necked, Lesser Scaups, Buffleheads, and the omnipresent Mallards and Gadwalls. A lone American Wigeon was grazing on the grass in the helipad field, where more than a *dozen* Brewer?s Blackbirds have decided to pair off amongst the bushes.

We may very well be witnessing the establishment of a permanent, year-round population of Brewer?s at the Fill, as they seem to have discovered the wonders of the QFC parking lot nearby. I saw several parading around there the other day. I have never been able to figure out why parking lots attract these birds, but I have to confess I?ve always been jealous of the Ross?s parking lot up on Aurora for its winter blackbird appeal. Why Ross?s and not U Village? Aren?t we good enough? My perennial puzzlement may now be moot.

Here is a poem for you today:

Eyes glowing
like twin lamps against the ebon night,
the Brewer's Blackbird pointed his bill skyward
and ogled his ladylove.
She reflected.

?Connie, Seattle

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