There and Back Again

After a week in the Tri-Cities (in southeastern WA), Truman and Pippin and I returned to our home, "Dog End", in Seattle.  ("There have always been dachshunds at Dog End.  There always will be.")

Only a few flowers had blooms when I went off on our vacation.  This is what greeted me one week later:

Forget-me-nots and bluebells cover the yard

The weeds burst out all over, too, so I have some gardening duties to keep me busy.

Let's go back now, though, to the last couple of days of vacation.  Having been to all of my favorite parks in Richland multiple times, I decided to venture a little farther afield to check out a new place in nearby West Richland:  The Park at the Lakes.

There I found two small, man-made lakes with trees, cattails, and grass, which proved to be excellent blackbird habitat.

Red-winged Blackbird 

The trail looped around each lake, perhaps half a mile total, so not a big place, but a lovely spot for a stroll.

Yellow-headed Blackbird 

On another day, I went on a four-mile walk through Richland, and paused at a park to make a quick sketch (and have a little rest).

One thing I wondered about before our visit was how Pippin would react to grass.  You see, our yard has no lawn -- it is all garden and paths.  No grass.  But Mom's home, where we stayed, has nothing but grass.  I thought Pippin might find it terribly boring.

He did not!  He spent hours out there, romping, running, rolling, sniffing, chasing leaves and twigs, and just lazing about.  I had trouble getting him to come back inside!  So now I'm worried that he'll find our yard boring.  Who knew?

Pippin does seem happy to be home, though.  For one thing, he got to see his friends Winston and Chloe, who he enjoys hanging out with on Thursdays.

While I was off in eastern WA, a Lewis's Woodpecker turned up in Seattle--which is normally an eastern WA bird.  Sightings in western WA are rare.  I've seen them around Yakima, so I wasn't unduly excited about it, but the bird was in one of my regular parks, so on Friday I hopped down there to check it out.

It's a big park, and as usual, instead of looking for the bird, all I had to do was look for the birders, and I found them and the woodpecker within one minute of arriving.  Sweet!

This annoyed the Hounds, who thought we were there for a dog walk.

They did get their walk eventually.  And then on Saturday, they got an even longer walk -- we spent five hours around the UW campus/Montlake Fill area, from 7am to noon, in order to do a little birding, make a visit to the festivities at Opening Day of the boating season, and check out the annual Master Gardeners plant sale. 

Long day.  I brought snacks.  For all of us.

I was greeted at the Fill loop trail by this American Robin:

And this Spring/Summer visitor, a Savannah Sparrow:

And this American Goldfinch:

There's a mud puddle on the trail that rarely dries up, and I know the Barn Swallows like to get mud and twigs there to build nests with, so I set up my camp stool a short distance away and staked it out.

Success!  The swallows swooped in, and gathered up twigs, and I got this delightful photo:

After birding the Fill, I walked over to the Montlake Cut and the boating festival. The Montlake Bridge closes at 10am, and I was happy to be on the right side of it, because it didn't re-open until 4pm.

We took a nice stroll along the Cut behind the UW South Campus.

I did a quick sketch there.

There was a boat parade later in the day which I didn't stick around for, but did get to see this interesting craft sailing by:

There were wonderful views from the Montlake Bridge before it closed:

There were crew races there, and I snapped this pic from the bridge for a slightly different view:

Then I walked back over to the Fill to do more birding and chatting with Connie Who Practically Lives There, and then I stopped by the nearby plant sale to pick up two chocolate-peppermint plants. A full, fun-filled day!

We had good weather while I was in Richland, and good weather for several days before I left, and have had good weather since I returned--in fact, the last time I got rained on was April 28.  I am spoiled!  The rain is slated to return this Thursday, so between now and then, you know where I'll be:  Out and About!