Hey tweets, what a glorious planet we live on, and what stunning nature we share it with. Today, 25 (!!!) SURF SCOTERS flew in to forage in the area between Foster Island and the Fill. This is only the fourth record of this species at Montlake Fill in more than 100 years, and all previous records have been of single birds. The flock was a little too far for me to ID with my feeble 8x binoculars, but luckily Martin Muller was sharing the bench at K-2 (second highest point at the Fill) with me and got them in his scope, not that Martin needed a scope for the identification. He called out scoter as the flock was flying in. Wish I could do that! But this is the first time I've ever seen scoters at the Fill.

Also present today: Sharp-shinned Hawk alighting on Canoe Island; 3 Western Grebes at the crew house; one of the juvenile Cooper's Hawks Martin helped to band at Volunteer Park (he said it was nice to say hi to a bird he knew); a Cackling Goose at the helipad; a Ruddy Duck and some Greater Scaup on the lake; a Long-billed Dowitcher trying its best to avoid the accipiters and the occasional Merlin coursing by; a few Barn Swallows; and Ruby-crowned Kinglets returning.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were abundant, filling the air with their calls. Above Paulson Prairie, a rainbow shaped like the Aurora Borealis came out in mid-afternoon and shed its colors over the fall landscape while Red-winged Blackbirds sang their bagpipe chorus and a little Song Sparrow practiced his song. Needs work.

Here is a poem for you today:

Sometimes I think if I sat at the Fill all year
like a pole saint,
every bird in the world would fly by eventually:
each of us the center.

- Connie, Seattle

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