Hi All,



My wife and I covered about 6 miles on the trails of Watershed Preserve in
Redmond this morning. Bird life was abundant, in numbers if not in
diversity, and more birds were seen than heard as the foliage was quite
dense. The most thrilling encounter of the day was of the furred rather
than the feathered variety. As we rounded a bend in the trail we heard
something crashing through the underbrush. We looked up to see a large
(probably young male) Black Bear moving up a hill in front of us. He paused
for a moment and then stood up to catch our scent. The tree cover was
dense, and the lighting was not ideal, but I managed to get a few photos of
him before he lumbered off and disappeared over the crest of the hill. With
the heavy snow cover in the mountains this year, many bears have been coming
down into the lowlands seeking food after emerging from their winter dens.
We should all keep this in mind, especially if we are birding in areas on
the east side of Lake Washington this spring.



Another interesting encounter involved two Brown Creepers that were busy
building a nest under a loose piece of bark on a snag in a beaver pond in
the preserve. It looked like most of the major construction had been
completed and the creepers were mostly collecting moss and other soft
materials for the lining of the nest. Photos of both the creepers and the
bear can be found in the "New Photos" gallery here:
http://www.goatislandimages.com/photogalleries.htm



Our complete (bird) species list from today's trip is below.



Redmond Watershed Preserve, 05/18/08



Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

American Robin

Swainson's Thrush

Red-winged Blackbird

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Black-capped Chickadee

Winter Wren

Bewick's Wren

Brown Creeper

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Pileated Woodpecker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Great Blue Heron

Mallard



Kevin Mack

Edmonds, WA

www.goatislandimages.com <http://www.goatislandimages.com/>

kevinmack at goatislandimages.com