The Calm Before the Storm

It's raining today, with storms in the forecast for the next 3-4 days at least.  I may wind up painting more of the walls in my home, though I also have a needlepoint project to work on.

But before the rain hit, we had a few days of lovely sunny weather.  Truman and I got out and about as much as we possibly could.  Here we are at Juanita Bay Park in Kirkland:

I don't drive over there very often though it's a very nice spot for birding.

It is always reliable for seeing Wood Ducks.

Truman and I were looking for a Sora that had been seen there many days in a row -- this is an elusive bird in the Rail family, the same family as coots and Virginia Rails.  While coots like to hang out in large flocks on open water, rails and soras prefer to hide in cattails and are hard to see.

And we didn't see one -- a bit disappointing, though still a beautiful spot to visit.  I've seen plenty of Virginia Rails, but I've seen only one Sora in all my birding years.  Oh well.  Maybe next time!

Truman did find something interesting crawling across the path:

A "woolly bear" caterpillar!

After our trip to Juanita Bay, we headed to the  University Bookstore so I could pick up a new sketching pen.  While there, Truman was menaced by a squirrel hand puppet.

He was not pleased.

Stay tuned for another "last of the warm sunny days" post tomorrow!