A Three-Park Morning, sort of

Yesterday was a surprisingly nice day (because rain was predicted but did not arrive) so Truman and I ventured forth to look for birds.

Our first stop was the Montlake Fill, where we were able to walk through the swamp (last time we tried this, the boardwalk was covered in slippery slush).

At the cove, we saw a few Mallards and a couple of Wood Ducks.  It was all rather quiet.  So we zipped over to the main loop trail around the Fill proper, where it was also rather quiet, with nearly no birds in view on the lake, and nothing in the meadows because they've all been mowed and mulched.

Our best bird was a Bald Eagle heading towards its nest with a bunch of nesting material clutched in its talons.

It was nice and sunny, at least.

We did have a few issues here and there with puddles.

Though a lot of bird habitat has been lost in the meadows, the cattails around the ponds are still lively -- the Red-winged Blackbirds seem happy, anyway.

The reason it was a "three-park morning, sort of" is because we didn't stop to get out at the second one -- Magnuson Park.  I just drove through slowly, checking the ponds and lake for signs of avian activity.  Nothing but crows and gulls.  So we moved on to our third one -- Meadowbrook Pond Park.

It was the smallest park we visited that day, at only nine acres, and it had better birds than either the Fill or Magnuson.  Here is a Hooded Merganser:

A female Common Goldeneye:

Ring-necked Ducks:

A Pied-billed Grebe:

By this time, Truman was tired of parks.

I started to head back to the car, but got distracted by a Belted Kingfisher, and poor Truman had to wait for another ten minutes while I tried to get a good photo:

Then we finally went home, and stayed there.  A fine morning, all in all.