Montlake Fill

Dad has arrived from South Africa and despite the sickish kids we have been having a good time with him. This morning, when Frost's fever had abated, we thought he was well enough for an early birdwatching walk on Montlake Fill. Its a natural area (aka wild parky place) on the shores of Lake Washington near our house that has a very rich birdlife.

Here is Dad carrying Wren near the cattail trees. We saw a number of birds - Dad chats to everyone we meet so we received some help from other birders. We saw a great blue heron, a chestnut teal, many redwing blackbirds, many turtles on logs, gadwalls and various other ducks whose names I forget.


Dad had to carry Wren because Frost faded fast and had to sit and be pushed in the stroller. I felt guilty and stopped to get him a Jamba Juice on the way home. Here he is collapsed and coughing.

We also saw some strange sights on our walk. The pond on the West side of the fill was churning with fish. I think they were carp and were doing some kind of mating pursuit. They were thrashing the surface, chasing, hitting water littles, pushing through reeds and even approaching the shore. Some other birdwatchers (with cameras and big lenses) said they had "never seen anything like these fish before" and that the nest of a grebe seemed to be threatened by the fish. The nest was a floating platform of twigs and had eggs in. The carp were thrashing up and looked as if they could break the next or smash the eggs.

Further on, at the inlet near the cattails, we saw a huge bloated dead beaver floating on the surface of the lake. You can see it as a tiny dot above the highest log in this photo. Wren overheard me talking about it to Dad and asked to see it again and again. Frost said "that is DISGUSTING" and wished he hadn't seen it.

The rest of the day Frost lay around and had extra screentime, rest and reading. We did gardening and made an excellent risotto with some local morels, chicken and lemon. Delicious. We finished it off with a bit of Molly Moon salted caramel icecream. Mrrmm Mrmm.