Walked the Union Bay Nature Area and Foster/Marsh Island trails early on this gorgeous Sunday morning.  Starting from the north we dropped south through Union Bay, along the shore past Husky Stadium, over Montlake bridge and over to Foster Island.  Note - pretty much all parking lots and facilities for all areas are closed due to covid19 concerns.  Additionally, with the lake at its higher summer level and the marginal state of repair on the Foster Island boardwalks, there are several areas where you will get your feet wet.  On a more positive note, WSDOT has punched a new shortcut under 520 winding south to the eastern access point of Foster/Marsh Islands and the arboretum which keeps you off surface streets and your feet dry.

The wetlands were teeming with birds, heron, a big juvenile bald eagle, what I think was a peregrine,  RWBBs, all sorts of ducks, including a cinnamon teal and something else that the professional bird watchers were super excited about.  One other very interesting wildlife phenomenon - dozens of huge carp were out in what appeared to be “romantic endeavors” splashing around in the shallow waters - never seen that before!  A shout out to the human population - while not crowded, there were a fair number of folks out and they were all doing a great job with the covid19 guidelines.  Lastly, don’t miss the short walk over to Yesler’s Swamp (shown as Union Bay Boglands on the Googlers) just east of the center for urban horticulture. Still a beautiful little walk even with our current restriction situation.  Happy Mother’s day.

I had another great solo voyage around our great city connecting greenspaces and getting in my steps.

My first goal was to observe Beavers in their morning routine at the Union Bay Nature Preserve. Even though I arrived at 530AM I missed their dispersal into the lake. There is a spot where you can see the muddy footprints of these diurnal creatures as they head out to forage. They were already swimming about and slapping their tails at me if I came too close to the water's edge.

I stayed in the preserve for a while to observe coots, herons, and a variety of ducks. Green Wing Teals, Shovelers, Mallards, and Wood Ducks. A pair of Bald Eagles soared overhead. I then followed Ravenna Creek northward, turning west to follow Lake Union and then eventually south to circumvent Lake Union.

A final push through Interlaken Park with it's fun trails and I was home by 9 without encountering a soul.

Distancing doesn't mean not being outside. I did a 9 mile loop from my house today. I saw many people but was never crowded. Flowers are out in the arboretum and many native plants are pushing up all around. Roughly 90% of my walk was on trails.

Bird sightings included Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Wood Ducks, Scoots, Mallards, Green Winged Teals, Buffleheads, and Northern Shovelers. Turtles were out sunning themselves on logs.

I take days like these to work on my identification skills (which are pretty sorry). I even found a new trail (to me). The Lake Washington Ship Canal Waterside Trail. I'd been there before but had never known it to have a name.

The Yesler Swamp Trail was my turn around point. This trail is part of the Union Bay Nature Preserve but is on the east side of the main facility and the parking lots. It is a very different environment from the rest of my walk as it more accurately represents the marshy lake edge as it might have been before logging and industry.

Walked the Union Bay Nature Area and Foster and Marsh Island loop trails early Sunday morning in the early autumn sunshine.  Parking at the Center for Urban Horticulture is easy and free. The trails across Marsh Island are a little squishy but no real worries and all other trails are in good shape.  Seattle Parks Dept is working to replace the view point on the east end of the cut so that is closed to access at this time. The Army Corp of Engineers appears to be well along on the annual lake level drop so all the steel walkways are completely out of the water as well.  We looped back up through the University of Washington campus, past Drumheller fountain, over to the HUB and down the steps to the big Montlake lot and back through the Union Bay area to complete the return trip. Mileage for this messy loop ended up at about 5.7 miles. Note - there were a fair number of homeless gentlemen across the UW campus this morning - one of which was quite aggressive - might consider avoiding, (the “new normal” for Seattle metro I guess…)   

Significant and diverse wildlife were out - duck, cormorant, red winged black bird, herons all over, a few turtles sunning on the logs, etc.  One heron in a poplar tree next to the UW stadium was loudly squaking away and looking extra annoyed - perhaps unhappy with the loss to Stanford yesterday.  Views down to Rainier and across to the Cascades and the Bellevue city skyline are spectacular. Lots of humans out as well, canoe, kayak, shell, helicopters, float planes, yachts, etc.  Burke-Gilman Brewing right off 45th just a couple blocks north has some really nice eurpean style brewskies that make a good “recovery drink” if you are into such things.  

The Union Bay Natural Area is one of the largest wetlands remaining on Lake Washington and today was a beautiful day to meander the trails and enjoy nature along the way. There were many walkers and runners enjoying the area. We saw a kingfisher, 4 white-fronted geese, green-winged teal, hooded mergansers, mallards, a great blue heron, grasshoppers, wood ducks, shovelers and many turtles basking in the sun! In one area there were Carolina coral bead vines with its red berries intertwining with red dozier dogwood! From a block away we could hear many, many red-winged blackbirds singing deep inside them, but we never saw any blackbirds! Very cool to listen to! The bushes were over 10 feet high! Before returning home we walked the short Yesler Swamp Loop and saw only turtles basking in the sun!