Steadfastly Ernest

Four round trips across the 520 Bridge this week, and on five of those legs we saw Ernest on the lamp post. He's looking a bit disheveled again....and we cannot blame it on frisky eaglets harrying our boy. His feathers are a little rumpled, but he is still magnificent sitting there above the bridge. Haven't seen Ethel lately. But the fact that Ernest has been around tells us she is in the area. After all, she is his raison d'etre. Winter is just around the corner for us. Mornings are frosty now. The sun has been glorious this week, but we know the gray, the drizzle, and the long dark winter are awaiting us. Six or so more weeks of ever-shortening days before we reach the darkest time in late December. People don't realize how far North we are here. North of the northern tip of Maine. North of Quebec City. So we pay dearly in loss of light in the winter. But come summer we enjoy over 19 hours of daylight in mid June through early July. Looking forward to a little snow here, we hope. It brightens up our winter days so much when the world turns white and fluffy.

Ernest....and a Long-Billed Curlew

Two trips over the 520 Bridge this week. On Tuesday morning Ernest was on the light standard, keeping watch. What is it about these birds that just totally makes a day worthwhile for catching sight of them. It was election day. We didn't know at that point how things would turn out, and seeing Ernest up there on his light post gave some reassurance that the world would keep spinning no matter what happened with the fickle American electorate. (I will admit that the final outcome was even more reassuring, but perhaps shouldn't disclose that sentiment....) Today another trip across the bridge and while there was no eagle either direction, there was one really amazing sight. A Long-Billed Curlew was on a light standard at mid-span! I had to look him up in my National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest when I got home to identify this rare stranger. He is a fairly large brownish bird with a very long, downward curved bill. He'd disappeared by the time I returned home. Several blue herons were in the vicinity of the bridge and the fountains on the west side, and the usual assortment of glaucous seagulls and Canada geese, mallards, and brants were in the Arboretum pools.