Sunday, June 10, 2012
Despite another gloomy day, we headed to a new park about 5 minutes from home - North Creek Park. We were interested especially in the Boardwalk Trail, a '¾ mile long walking adventure made up of more than 150 sections of floating trail.'

Who knew that we'd also be walking along on top of the Kidneys of the Earth!
     
   
     
Can you tell that we've had a LOT of rain this year? How green it is!.
 
     
   
     
At the first lookout we caught a glimpse of a Barn Swallow in her nest, inside the lookout shelter.
 
     
   
     
Her husband waited patiently for us to leave so he could bring her his gift.
 
     
   
     

Here's the floating boardwalk. Yes, it moves, but not in a scary manner. We could see the creek rushing along below it in places. According to some of the display signs, the water is home to fish, salamanders, turtles, beavers, otters and lots of water birds. We couldn't see much because the grass and reeds were taller than us in many places.
 

     
   
     
The hills were alive...with the sounds of Red-winged Blackbirds!
 
     
   
     
These bright Yellow Monkeyflowers shone like little beacons in the greenery.
 
     
   
     

I must admit I laughed out loud when I saw this sign. What a descriptive phrase.
 

     
   
     
Indeed, the boardwalk was quite overgrown and wet in places.
 
     
   
     
Tim identified this tiny, colorful vine-like flower: 'Bitter nightshade...an invasive species.'
 
     
   
     
We watched a tiny little Marsh Wren for a while.
 
     
   
     
For a very small bird, he made a LOT of noise!
   
     
   
     
At the end of the boardwalk, we turned around and retraced our steps. We met several people who told us that the boardwalk was spectacular in the Winter when the grasses were dead. We look forward to seeing loads of birds on the many ponds, plus animals like voles, foxes, weasels, coyotes and beavers. There are also eagles and herons.
 
     
   
     
Cedar Waxwings darted around all over the place.
 
     
   
     
'Ahoy Ang - where are you?'
 
     
   
     
I'm taking a picture of a Garter snake, trying to find a little patch of sun on the boardwalk.
   
     
   
     

And back where we began, a Flicker watched us from high above.

We'll be back!