Clear, sunny weather on Monday December 1 prompted a bicycle ride on the
Snoqualmie Valley Trail between North Bend and Cedar Falls. Highlight of
the ride was the sighting of an Osprey atop a very high cedar snag beside
a forest pond called Rainbow Lake. Still clothed in wisps of fog below the
trail, the lake was barely visible and all we could see were a few
Mallards floating with heads tucked in. The Osprey stayed on his pedestal
waiting for the fog to clear and was still there when we left several
minutes later. Steller's Jays and Winter Wrens broke the stillness of the
scene. The trail ends at the Seattle Watershed boundary near Rattlesnake
Lake where heavy equipment operators were working on the area being
developed for camping and picnicking, a joint effort among Seattle City
Light, Washington State and King County.

At Rattlesnake Lake we saw about a dozen pair of Bufflehead, several
pairs of Ring-necked ducks, a couple of Scaup, many Mallards and coots as
well as three Pekins, 7 Canada Geese and some domestic geese. The lone
Western Grebe toward the Cedar Falls end of the lake seemed quite out of
place.

In the north Bend area crows dominated the bird scene along the trail
though a few Juncos, Robins, Chickadees, Starlings, Northern Flickers and
one Pileated Woodpecker inhabitated the airspace.

On our way home we could not resist stopping at the Millpond beside the
old Weyerhaeuser Mill in Snoqualmie Falls to observe the avian population.
There were at least seven pair of Common Merganser, a dozen Double-crested
Commorants (standing on every available deadhead), Buffleheads probably 5
pairs plus immature males, coots by the dozen and a few Mallards.

Bill and Erin Woods Woods Tree Farm Redmond, WA U.S.A.
<wwwbike at halcyon.com>