Hey tweets, *Great* day at the Fill this morning: an EASTERN KINGBIRD perched and posed in the pearly light atop the little oak tree near the southwest corner of the CUH building. What an unexpected sight! I had to rub my eyes in disbelief - I've been thinking lately about Jorge Luis Borges, who writes about living in a dream-state, and maybe that's what I've been doing too, because no sooner had the kingbird flown off to the Youth Farm but a SWAINSON'S THRUSH perched in full view in the same oak tree. It apparently didn't realize I was even there, watching it with mouth open, because it too perched and posed for quite a while. I think it was digesting the serviceberries that it had been gorging on in the nearby trees - the fruit is ripe and has attracted large numbers of finches, thrushes, and waxwings.

Also on view today: a FOY (for me, anyway) WILLOW FLYCATCHER in the hawthorne tree north of Boy Scout Pond, two CASPIAN TERNS flying right over Main Pond, a pair of BAND-TAILED PIGEONS flying overhead, an AMERICAN WIGEON on Main Pond, and a BLUE-WINGED TEAL there as well. The air was filled with the chatter of swallows, and bagpipes of blackbirds, and the most beautiful American Robin song I have ever heard, a kind of flute-like song that I listened to for more than an hour, courtesy of the maestro who performed it.

Here is a poem for you today:

On gray days
when the light glows pearl instead of gold
I listen to muted birdsong,
rustle of grass, cry of tern
soft notes of nature quiet.

- Connie, Seattle

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