Waterfowl, Part II

Yesterday was a cool day in Seattle.

The sun shone brightly, but not so brightly as to melt you into a mass of quivering sweat glands. A day such as this demanded exploration of local nature, so there I went. A lot of boats cruised under the Montlake Bridge, and it looked like the Waterfront Activities Center was doing good business.


The wetlands on the edge of Lake Washington are full of life — ducks, dragonflies, water striders, and some kind of little rodent that skitters around in the bushes.

I stood in the grasses along the lake shore for at least ten minutes, trying to get a picture of a cool bird with my totally inappropriate 50mm lens, and when I looked down, three ants were crawling their way across my pant leg.

This large dragonfly kept flitting around near me, almost as if taunting me, "Nah, nah, you don't have a zoom lens and your pictures of me are going to be really crappy!"

That's just anthropomorphism, but you know what I mean.

Intending to cross over to the Arboretum through Foster Island, I walked towards the trails only to encounter this:







That's a sign warning that the trails are flooded and extra muddy because the locks up in Ballard are in use, and that raises the entire lake level. Wow!

Notice the duck in the corner? She just slid up right when I took the picture. I think the duck must be my spirit guide of sorts, because after that she hopped up on the side of the bridge I stood on and sat there for a while.

She shook her feathers, maybe to rearrange them, maybe to get the water off, and then jumped back in and glided away. Perhaps word of my first post got around and I'm being recognized for bettering the duck cause within human society. But who knows.

Today's Forecast:

Sunny

76/55

Seattle Times

This sounds fun too: Watching the Tour de France in a pub on Capitol Hill. Okay, so maybe watching it gets old after five minutes, but I'm sure there's oodles of conversation potential.