Subject: [Tweeters] From the Fill
Date: Oct 31 01:08:32 2014
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, I've been down with the flu so long I have almost forgotten how to walk in nature, with eyes wide open and spirit too. I managed to drag myself around the Loop Trail before the rains came. There has been a lovely Northern Shrike at the Fill since last Friday, a glorious gift from the North who likes especially to perch on the shattered remnants of the Triple Tree, the tall three-trunked cottonwood that grew alone in the middle of Hunn Meadow East and fell to the wind on Sunday. Nature both gives and takes.

Also present in recent days: FOY Pine Siskin among the many Savannah Sparrows and one Vesper Sparrow in the field east of Southwest Pond; a sparkling winter-plumaged Bonaparte's Gull dancing above the Lagoon nearby; Ma and Pa Eagle bringing sticks to their nest at Talaris, readying themselves for another round of kids; a vee of 25 Snow Geese heading south; and the winter ducks coming back, including a female Bufflehead.

Here is a poem for you today:

Fallen giant,
when the wind came
you wouldn't bend
and so you broke
now dead among the grasses.
Your roots live
and you shall rise again.

- Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com <mailto:constancesidles at gmail.com>
www.constancypress.com <http://www.constancypress.com/>