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Text of the page (random words):
the sky like zeus really had it in for us it was wild and wonderful one of nature s best light shows i thought until that is a bolt hit somewhere close by there was an incandescent flare as though a million flashbulbs had gone off at once followed almost instantly by a boom so loud it shook the house my heart leaped from its moorings into my throat so i could hardly breathe that was close said my husband calmly he believes his main job in the family is to stay calm that s because he s married to a worst case scenario person who immediately began to think about how the next bolt might reduce our little house to mere splinters after i managed to reinstall my heart in its proper place i began to think about how fortunate we are to have shelter from storms but also how removed we are from nature our culture both shields us and distances us from planet earth it s good to realize from time to time how overpowering and wild nature really is and how dependent we are on its bounty here is a poem for you today stand beside the lightning strike feel the ions lift your hair hear an eagle s hunting cry know we have not tamed them no we never will this entry was posted in uncategorized on august 17 2015 by constancesidles yellow treasure leave a reply ornithologists are famous for giving common names to birds that are anything but common sensical long billed and short billed dowitchers for example have the same length bills ring necked ducks have bright rings around their bills not their necks orange crowned warblers almost never show their crowns and when they do the crowns are almost impossible to see common nighthawks are not common aren t very active at night and aren t hawks but yellow warblers ah that s another story yellow as the sun yellow as lemons yellow warblers are a yellow of such pure yellowness they put bananas to shame as for the warbling part of their names their contratenor arias are as thrilling to hear as any operatic singer s sweet sweet i m so sweet the males sing in quick time pushing out their melody so fast they sound like living piccolos yellow warblers arrived last month and can be heard performing on the edges of the wetlands of montlake fill right now here is a poem for you today about my golden treasured warbler i left him there singing throat quivering bill to the sky i went back home away from the wild leaving my spirit behind singing this entry was posted in uncategorized on june 3 2015 by constancesidles in honor of those who serve leave a reply we are freer than birds for they must obey their dna while we are free to choose but we pay a price for that today we remember who paid this entry was posted in uncategorized on may 25 2015 by constancesidles here and gone leave a reply green winged teals have left for parts north and east to breed they leave quietly in the night the ducks hawks and divers who have spent the winter with us for them seattle is the balmy south now that spring has arrived they are heading north and east to their breeding grounds spring is not traditionally a melancholy season but i miss the teals buffleheads and wigeons who have delighted me for so many months i know i won t see them again until october and some will never return fallen in transit or eaten while defending their nests on the other hand i can t spend much time in mourning for the spring migrants and summer residents are arriving by the thousands one of my favorites is the cinnamon teal a glorious assemblage of red orange burnt umber and yellow a living hotbed of glowing embers in duckly form five males were on main pond yesterday trying their best to impress a female who seemed more interested in eating than in dating cinnamon teals have arrived for the summer here is a poem for you about the teals remember the ones who are gone yes who may return or never rejoice for the ones here in now for they bring glory to today this entry was posted in uncategorized on may 9 2015 by constancesidles ducks unlimited leave a reply spring in seattle is wild and wonderful with wind storms thrashing the trees one minute and zephyr breezes merely tussling the tops of the grass stems the next spring is the season when we can almost feel the earth tilting back toward the sun bringing the long days that make us and the birds restless eager to go somewhere anywhere already the summer ducks are arriving the cinnamon teals in full breeding plumage of burnt umber glowing like fire meanwhile the winter ducks are gathering in flocks to fly north and east to find that one right best place to nest among the last to wrench themselves away are the buffleheads our smallest duck they will be heading out soon to find lonely ponds in the north surrounded by snags with good holes to nest in meanwhile we can enjoy for just a little longer the males jewel tones decked out in gems from their iridescent heads to their ruby feet here is a poem for you today i love the gray seattle spring the sky tarnished with cloud the silvery light burnishing the buffleheads into fire opals dark and light this entry was posted in uncategorized on april 25 2015 by constancesidles will you help leave a reply dear friends i wonder if you could help our shorebirds at montlake fill union bay natural area shorebirds are sandpipers that migrate from central and south america all the way up to the tundra in alaska and canada every spring and fall they pass through washington notably they come to montlake fill to thrill us with their beauty their hardiness they tininess imagine flapping your arms day after day hour after hour for thousands of miles to get to alaska on your own power that s what shorebirds do long billed dowitcher one of 29 species of shorebirds who visit the fill unfortunately montlake fill has suffered a catastrophic decline in shorebird migration we went from some 1500 birds in the 1990s to a mere 42 individuals last year that is because woody vegetation has grown all around the mudflats and ponds of the fill shorebirds need open space so they can see their predators coming from far off they don t like habitat that has dense cover where raptors can lurk because willows and bushes have invaded the main ponds of the fill and now nearly blanket the best mud shorebirds have quit coming we have a unique once in a lifetime chance to restore shorebirds to montlake fill washington dept of transportation wsdot is planning to give the university of washington 2 million to mitigate for the floating bridge they are widening across the lake washington union bay is part of lake washington tragically though the mitigation plan they ve come up with calls for more woody vegetation at the fill not only that the plan calls for so called buffer plants to be planted around all the ponds making it impossible for students and community members to access them to view any birds at all these plans will effectively end shorebird migration here a migration pattern that has existed since the end of the last ice age will be no more at least as far as we will be able to observe in seattle seattle audubon and i have been trying to persuade wsdot and the us army corps of engineers who have jurisdiction here to alter their plans and remove woody vegetation from around the two biggest ponds of the fill the conservation scientists at seattle audubon believe this will restore a significant population of migrating shorebirds to the fill wsdot and the us army corps of engineers usace refuse to listen instead they insist on following a generic mitigation plan that does not take into account the fact that the fill is a teaching site where usable shorebird habitat can be accessed by both birds and people their plan doesn t even take into account the fact that our wetlands in the nw differ in nature from those of the eastern us where these plans were concocted indeed we will end up with woody deciduous wetlands that according to professor dennis paulson of the slater museum a world expert will provide habitat for very few birds at all we are asking everyone who cares about shorebirds and the fill to sign seattle audubon s petition asking wsdot and the usace to revise their plans for the fill and remove woody vegetation from two ponds this is a simple easy low cost way to restore an important ecological niche to the fill and to seattle as a whole here is the link it s long because it will automatically be sent to all these agencies http tinyurl com wasdot shorebird petition we also ask that people send emails or letters to wsdot usace and the uw letting them know this is an important issue for us here is a link to seattle audubon s web page to give you contact information http tinyurl com seattleaudubonshorebird finally we are asking people to spread the word about the petition and our efforts to help shorebirds please forward this message to your facebook friends your families and to organizations you belong to numbers do count in an effort like this will you help will you ask everyone you know to join with us i know your voice s would make a difference this entry was posted in uncategorized on february 10 2015 by constancesidles maestro of magic leave a reply if you sit on the edge of yesler swamp on a foggy winter s morning you might hear a piccolo song floating heavenward from deep in the woods the song seems to come from all directions at once until you feel surrounded by music but the song doesn t engulf you exactly it is too fragile for that it s more like gossamer wings of sound tickling first one ear then the other caressing your cheek then disappearing back into the mist you re welcome to try to find the singer but i must warn you he prefers to perform out of sight if you follow his song he may lure you deeper into the swamp receding just out of view like a will o wisp until you would be lost forever were it not for the boardwalk leading you safely home again this is our own pacific wren the quickest singer in all the swamp his notes come so fast they sound almost like a continuous trill to us but if you slow the song down electronically you can hear how very complex and lyrical it is loud too if you were to put a pacific wren into a xerox machine and press enlarge to chicken size the wren would sing louder than a crowing rooster longer winded too wrens can sing with both outgoing and incoming breaths so they don t have to stop until they ve sung every last note they want to here is a poem for you today to honor our little maestro the wren of the swamp sang a song just for me alone on the trail where no one could see there we danced with the wind and time stood still this entry was posted in uncategorized on february 4 2015 by constancesidles go seahawks leave a reply much as we love our seahawks team and hard as we hope they will win this coming sunday we in seattle are privileged to host a real sea hawk the osprey ospreys come to us from south america migrating here to eat our fish and raise their young we have a special pair who nest at noaa in nearby magnuson park and who come to union bay on spring and summer mornings to hover over the water as they look for fish when they see one they fold their magnificent wings and plunge into the water talons extended look for our ospreys to return in a few months in the meantime we can root for their human counterparts here is a poem for both our sea hawks fly high bright eagle of the sea and sky with twelve beats of your wings you have stolen our hearts away this entry was posted in uncategorized on january 26 2015 by constancesidles mammals in winter leave a reply although i am a birder at heart i can t help but notice some of the marvelous mammals that inhabit montlake fill as well a river otter family regularly swims over from foster island to frolic among the cattails on our side of the bay and tease the ducks like pesky toddlers in the back seat he s on my side she s making faces at me mooommmm the beavers have been hard at work as if to fulfill their stereotypical image they cut down all the birches at east point and have begun work on a mammoth cottonwood on boy scout pond what they will do with it when it falls is beyond me there are seven beaver lodges encircling union bay including one in yesler swamp you can see these large members of the rodent family swimming around the bay if you get out here at dawn or dusk i once sat my campstool near a mud slick trail leading out of the water and watched a large north american beaver swimming toward east point he stopped short when he saw me and slapped his tail on the water which i thought was a warning to other beavers to watch out for the dangerous human in the floppy hat but instead of diving and escaping he began to slap harder and harder at last he was slapping so hard half his body was coming out of the water with each slap and i could see his little back feet wiggle it finally dawned on me that he was trying to tell me to go away so he could climb out and eat the succulent bark nearby i slunk off apparently i am deficient in beaver speak among my favorite rodents surprisingly are the field mice who come out sometimes to feed in the fields i say surprisingly because if i see one in my house i eek with the best and make haste to stand on a chair mickey mouse was never one of my idols but wild mice in their natural habitat are cute more or less last time we had a little snow i found one peeping out at me from a little tunnel it had dug beside the trail its nose quivered in the cold as it checked me out so i wrinkled my nose too and smiled glad of my muffler and the warm heater i knew was waiting for me back home here is a poem for you this winter s day light glazed the snowfield no track to mar the gloss til you poked out little mouse of wild ways and left a wispy trail this entry was posted in uncategorized on january 23 2015 by constancesidles mallards in winter leave a reply male puddle ducks such as mallards face a troubling dilemma every year on the one hand they d like to stay in their nondescript eclipse plumage for as long as possible so they can hide from predators unfortunately they would also like to find a mate before their rivals can snaffle all the most attractive females the males who get into their spiffy breeding plumage early have the best chance to catch both the feminine and the eagle s eye oy our males at montlake fill are among nature s more intrepid gallants and begin to molt into breeding plumage as early as october now that january is here they are all lookin good many have already found their significant other and appear almost insufferably smug until an eagle shows up and they beat a hasty retreat into the cattails the remaining bachelors parade themselves in front of the drab females in hopes of getting lucky it s a drama you can watch anytime you stroll down to the water s edge and search for emerald heads set against the backdrop of our silvery lake here s a poem for you today there is magic here in winter leaden skies touch the lake at dawn and turn th...