Subject: [Tweeters] From the Fill
Date: Feb 24 08:44:09 2014
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, dodging raindrops yesterday, I had a great time looking at birds in the silvery light of a Seattle February, the time of year when winter and spring mix like a kaleidoscope: shake it up and it seems random, but everything finally fits together in a beautiful pattern. For example, a VARIED THRUSH was perched in a tree at the Dime Lot - for us, Varied Thrushes are a winter bird. Ruby-crowned Kinglets have yet to sing. Yellow-rumped Warblers are as drab as the leafless trees they forage through.

But a RED-BREASTED MERGANSER was swimming around on the lake - usually a spring migrant for the Fill, though lately they seem to appear in winter or late fall off Magnuson Park nearby. The Northern Flicker who played a two-note song on the lamppost last year in the Dime Lot (I called him the Beethoven of woodpeckers) was striking a tiny branch of the snag yesterday - I guess he was trying out for the piccolo chair, which seemed absolutely fascinating to his mate nearby. The most spring-like birds, though, were a little formation of TREE SWALLOWS skimming the lake and then pausing in front of the gallery (i.e., me on my campstool) to do a few aerobatics before heading off purposefully and finally north.

The air was wintry chill but the crocuses are showing color. Another season is passing; a new one comes.

Here?s a twitter poem for you:

How I love the slow, weeping rain,
not for the sorrow it brings to some
but for the bright, shining renewal of life it brings.

-Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com