No, Ebbie, according to Frank, the local expert birder, after I described the birds I saw, he said that the yellow eye and the fact that when the light hit them a certain way, they looked like a dark iridescent blue-green, was a dead giveaway that they were Brewer's blackbirds. He said at the time that there were a whole bunch of them around Haller Lake, north of Seattle, and that lately they'd been showing up around Green Lake.

HEREs another one. I went to google, clicked on "Images" and put it "Brewer's blackbird," and came up with a whole flock of photos, all labelled "Brewer's blackbird." Dead ringers for the birds I saw.

One day I saw what I would have sworn was a bald eagle heading downtown. I asked Frank about it and he said that it was indeed a bald eagle. "There is a pair of them out at Discovery Park. Once in a while, when they get tired of eating fish, they head downtown for a change of diet."

"Downtown?" I asked. "What do they find down there?"

"Pigeons," he said. "Lots of pigeons."

Can you imagine sitting there on a bench eating your lunch in front of the First National Bank Building across from the new Seattle Public Library with pigeons bobbing around you and pecking at crumbs when a big bald eagle swoops in and joins you for lunch? Kinda awesome!!

Don Firth