Hey tweets, I?ve been down and out with the flu lately, and so the best I can muster is a little car birding. The first Savannah Sparrow showed up last Friday, too chilled and perhaps tired to sing yet. He?ll manage in another day or two. A male Brewer?s Blackbird has been prancing around in the field by the helipad, trailed by a bevy of females. What has he got that others don?t have? To the non-blackbird eye, a total mystery. Dave Slager reported seeing a hybrid Red-shafted x Yellow-shafted Norther Flicker. This bird is indeed a beauty, especially when the still-low spring sunshine lights up his gold shafts. Many, many years ago, a Yellow-shafted easterner set up housekeeping near the golf driving range with a female Red-shafted. Ever since then, we have had yellow genes in the pool. I wonder if this guy is a throwback to that ancestor, or whether he is the son of a more recent visitor. No way to tell, but either way, he connects us geographically and historically to the larger planet, something that is easy to forget in our busy, circumscribed lives.

Here is a poem for you today, the first *official* day of spring:

Spring comes to the Fill:
crocus in the fields,
swallows in the sky,
plum blossoms blowing,
a turtle's muddy nose.
Nature needs no calendar.

- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com