Hiya
On the Golden Gardens Pond...
I really want to mention the turtles but I'll start with the birds. Near
the pond today in Golden Gardens Park in Ballard was an OSPREY flying S
along the shore of Puget Sound. The RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS are still very
active with fledglings hopping around the branches and males still singing
and displaying. The females are very visible too. Only a few swallows, BARN
SWALLOW and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS are singing from
the Marina parking lot to the pond. Any little patch of garden in the
asphalt acreage seems to suit them just fine. The only ducks in the pond
now seem to be MALLARDS, some of them very strange looking. There have been
3 broods of ducklings but none of them made it more than a few days. (The
discovery park BALD EAGLES nest isn't far away.) 43 active GREAT BLUE
HERONS nests, 42 in Kiwanis Ravine, one in the gardens at the locks. I saw
one chick this morning at the locks, but there could be more, the nest is
well hidden, but not enough to keep the eagles out.

There were six turtles in the Golden Gardens pond this morning, at least
four were Red Eared Sliders aka Dime Store Turtles. They're not native,
what kind of an effect can they have in a small pond like this? I won't ask
why people think it's ok to dump their pets. The rats were enjoying the
bread people leave and one, maybe two Muskrats were quite busy..

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Cliff Drake
Ballard, Seattle WA
cliff at cliffdrake.net