Post-Thanksgiving Crowds of People Have Thinned, Birds Have Increased

Over an inch of rain now, temperature dropping, chance of snow tonight and tomorrow.  Very few people walking the lake today, yesterday was like a parade, today I could make my way through an entire Christmas carol out loud with no one to hear me sing.  I recognized several people from passing them half-way around before.  Parking lots relatively empty, and even the coffee stand was closed (it was open yesterday morning.)

The lake is the happening spot for the Mergansers and Cormorants though, whose numbers increase daily.  Can't remember if I already mentioned the lake being stocked recently, but it was, and the birds have let that be known.

Yesterday, the Cormorants had taken over the swimming platform, at one point lining up near the ledge and dropping off into the water like penguins off of an ice shelf.  Today when I passed by, they were all in the water, half-submerged, only their heads and necks above the water line.  The water rough and high and sloshing against the "sea" walls and docks.  On the land, a flock of American Wigeons drifting across the water-logged playfields.  On the sidewalk near an empty baseball diamond, the water had pooled enough that the birds swam the three feet across from one edge to the other.  I'm charmed by how ducks will take the invitation of the smallest of pools and go for swim.

I found myself momentarily engulfed by a swirling flock of pigeons.  Mesmerizing.

The rains show no signs of letting up.  My clothes drip-drying until I go back out in it again.

No Latin nor Narrative

I have insomnia.

Birds sightings, as of late: Common Mergansers, Western Grebes, and Hooded Mergansers (all both at the Fill, and at Greenlake.  The ones at Greenlake keep to their respective corners for the most part: I keep finding the same species in the same locations.)  Saw big white birds hanging out with the Cormorants out on a log boom on Lake Washington, just a few, earlier this week (Wednesday, I believe.)  I walked over to the bird-sighting board and saw that someone else had listed seeing five Trumpeter Swans.  I haven't seen them here before (usually I come across them in the Skagit Valley and on Whidbey Island during the winter.) I'm not sure how many I saw, more than one, less than ten.  They were a ways off of shore, but they stood out.  They were unexpected.

Big flocks of American Wigeons (on both lakes), and a lone N. Shoveler on the canal.  Also, the usual large flocks of American coots (both lakes), some Mallards and Buffleheads (both in smaller flocks.)  Haven't seen any teals (Green-winged and Cinnamon are usually around here in the winter) nor Gadwalls up close, bus suspect they are present in the flocks of Wigeons off shore.

Always hold out hope for another pheasant sighting in town, but I suspect those are long gone now.  (I did come across a couple in the mid-2000's in the Fill, two males in a leap-like flight over the path, at dusk:  A magical moment, a lucky encounter.)

Saw-whet Owl

November 3.

Someone asks if I want to go see an owl, I ask if it's a Snowy owl.  No.  We go down the stairs and eventually find a small crowd looking in a tree.  Crows cawing in displeasure, wrens, chickadees, and juncos, fluttering from branch to branch.  A very small owl sits on a low branch, with its eyes shut, occasionally opening its beak, though there is too much racket to hear if any sound emerges.  "A Northern Saw-whet owl," someone says, Aegolius acadicus.  

We watch it for a while then walk back up to the office.  I'm at lunch, locate a camera (wasn't sure I had one at the office when I walked down the first time) and head back down.  In the few minutes I was gone, everyone else also left.  The crows find their moment.  As I near the tree, I witness the owl get mobbed, and something drops down to the ground, all the crows fly west.  I look for the owl, when suddenly it shoots past me, heading east, low, through the path the stairwell makes in between the trees, and into another grove of trees.  I walk over there, but don't find it.

Since it's not currently raining, and I'm already out, I walk over to the Fill.  Quiet again.  No mammals.  A lone Western grebe, some American coots in the distance.  When I get to the bridge, a Belted kingfisher shoots over my head, down the canal, dives at an unidentified duck (I haven't figured out what it was, though I looked at it), and disappears with a squawk.

I turn and head back. Fifteen minutes early, but I beat the rain.

Back to the Fill

Late October -

The birds have been subdued as of late.  In the morning, the robins scatter when I open the door, but they don't chatter or sing.  They are feasting on the fermenting grapes, I think.  And in the Fill earlier today, all the voices in the distance: a kingfisher, a couple of mallards, and a spotted towhee; all of them out of sight.

No otters or any other mammals.  Coots, Cormorants, a couple of N. Shovelers, and buffleheads,  float, and congregate on the lake, but all is quiet.

A breeze kicks up, first through the cottonwoods and they rustle, sounding like a rain shower.  Someone has cut the grass, and the smell of a damp forest floor fill my nose.  The lone tree that stood tall in the middle of the field has fallen, fallen or been cut, but the trunk seems broken.  It's not as muddy as I would have expected, the trails manageable, and the water levels low.  It's been raining for days, today being a welcome break, though the clouds have returned, and so shall the rain.