Schmitz Park

 On Saturday Scott and I left our bikes in the garage and went for a stroll to and through Schmitz Park. It's been a few years since we'd been there, but it hadn't changed all that much. Once again, we heard about a million birds while seeing only a few, but the plants and light were pretty enough that I was still glad I had brought my camera which seemed inclined to work properly once more. In no particular order, some photos from the expedition:

Trillium, I think. I suspect these were planted rather than occurring naturally, but they are native.

Salmonberry blossoms, maybe, growing near a tidied-up tree trunk

Skunk cabbage is in bloom just now. Less stinky than you'd expect.

I'm sticking with salmonberry blossom for the ID, but I could be wrong.

A bit of nursery log in action--though I'm not certain this isn't a still-living limb.

One bird that was fairly obvious (well, Scott spotted it in flight initially) was a Cooper's hawk. It even sat in one place long enough for me to--eventually--get a photo of it:

Cooper's hawk in Schmitz Park

On the walk home we had a nice view of Mount Rainier so of course I paused on the corner to record it for posterity because I'm always just so pleased to live in West Seattle where the mountain seems so close and friendly all the time.

Mount Rainier (and Little Tahoma) over the West Seattle rooftops

Coming Soon: A mess of photos from the backyard where the songbirds were only too happy to pose after we got home from Schmitz Park. Those gold-crowned sparrows are quite the hams.