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.