For a couple of hours as I was trying to hear the conversation on KUOW about the dire straits the coral reefs are in, a sharp chirping of a bird right next to one of my single-pane windows, made it a bit difficult for me to hear the commentary on the radio. When I finally stepped outside to look for the singer, I realized there were several singing unendingly throughout my woodsy yard. I tried to focus on spots from which the triling and burbling emanated, in order to catch a glimpse of one of the little cheery spirits, but to no avail. The sounds came from maybe 4-10 feet off the ground and they kept moving. I was surrounded by the calls, if not the birds. Seen 'em before in my yard, so they're no strangers, but today's group (it sounded like 3) brought a very warm and happy lilt to the morning, mixing with the sunshine. Together they drowned out the dark, moaning realities of the poor, old coral reefs, gasping for breath. A nice break. Ain't nature great? :-)
As I write, I still hear the perky little buggers (they do eat bugs, don't they ?)
Well, maybe I'll try harder to see them some other morning. I know they are hard to photograph, so I doubt I'll succeed with that. But luckily, I have some great photos of one sent out by one of our noted photogs.

May the birdy buggers brighten your breakfast some day.

Time for me to wander off in search of some chittery "kee-kee" birds...

Barb Deihl
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net