neighborhood villages

Male common goldeneye dining on a lamprey / credit Reinke, 3/25/2018 This afternoon between 3:38 pm and 4:07 pm I walked from the Opportunity Bldg down to the Leary Way Bridge and back, along the Sammamish River Trail.  I only had my small camera with me and didn't take any photos. On the way south, I saw some buffleheads and common goldeneyes in the river.  When heading back north, I counted 4 male and 2 female common goldeneyes.   I also counted one male and 2 female  buffleheads.  Birdweb.org states that buffleheads are the smallest diving duck in Washington state, and I did indeed observe that they were noticeably smaller than the common goldeneyes. The most interesting wildlife I saw were four river otters swimming north in the river.  I spotted them about a hundred yards north of the Leary Way Bridge, up very close to my side of the river.  They were rapidly heading north, and a pleasure to watch.  All appeared to be large and the s...

Credit / John Reinke  A 95th Street Bear Creek Enhancement project will install six log jams, two backwater channels, 230-feet of alcoves and enhance almost 3-acres of buffer. The project is on the Chinook Recovery plan for WRIA 8 because of its high benefit to spawning and rearing habitat in Bear Creek. The project is located south of the 95th Street bridge on City of Redmond owned property. The $143,490 grant will help pay for construction costs associated with the installation of four log jams in the stream, one backwater channel and approximately 180- ft of alcoves. The remaining part of the project is designated as mitigation and will be entirely paid for by the stormwater Capital Improvement Project budget. The construction target is 2019 pending receiving Army Corps permits. --  Council Committee meeting, 11/13 ### Lake Sammamish State Park has grown by more than 5 acres after land was donated to the park by a local company. Lakeside Industries recently donated a 5.3-a...

Green heron spearing a frog  (credit; Reinke) Here is a list of birds and animals John Reinke has seen this year in the 90th Street retention pond with the three lopped trees:   - A group of five otters seen together there all at the same time earlier this year;    - great blue herons are fairly common  - took a picture of one swallowing a large catfish   - green herons   - blue kingfisher  - beaver -  I have a photo of one I took back around 2011 or 2012 - invasive bull frog   - black mink - I saw one there years ago - ring necked ducks  "Isn't it remarkable the variety of wildlife we have here in suburban Redmond?"  - John Reinke,  11/7

Credit / John Reinke This dragonfly landed on John Reinke's finger when he was trying to scoop it out of a puddle on the Sammamish River Trail.  Here's a closeup in which you can see its legs, one of its large compound eyes, thorax and momentarily waterlogged wings. John believes it is a female paddle tail darner .   Don't worry, dragonflies don't bite but they are voracious eaters of mosquitoes. Their legs are for catching prey in the air.  Most of their life (1-2 years) is spent as larvae living underwater. They spend 2-3 weeks flying around fattening up to lay their eggs in the water.   We listened to a fascinating lecture on this animal by James Walker, PhD last week. He sells a book on Amazon and recently was interviewed by King 5.   It's a must listen! -- Bob Yoder

Western Screech Owl on Powerline Trail / John Reinke Actually, the little western screech-owl didn't make a sound, as it silently surveyed me from its vantage point in a hole in a tree trunk.  And I don't know if it was a male or a female. I was ascending the Powerline Trail in the late afternoon about a month ago, from its western terminus at the Sammamish River Trail here in Redmond.  After a few minutes, I came to a spot  where I knew one could see a tree trunk with an oval opening that was large enough to serve as a nest cavity. I hadn't passed that way since last year, when my friend Bob Yoder had published a photo of an adult screech owl peering out of that very same space on his Redmond Blog.  The discovery and photos were taken by his friend Ingunn Markiewiez. I glanced to my right, and saw what looked like a kind of growth occupying the cavity.  I thought that was odd, and continued climbing upward.  I had also noticed there was a ki...

credit John Reinke This is a Great Blue Heron just after it caught a brown bullhead  which is a local species of catfish here in Washington state.  The picture was taken this month at the wetland enclosure on the east side where 90th Street crosses the Sammamish River here in Redmond.   - John Reinke

Credit:  John Reinke

The Mayor interviewed nature photographer John Reinke for this summer's  "Focus on Redmond" newsletter.  It made the front page. John started as a local nature, environmental and cultural photographer.  Ten years later he's evolved into a photo-journalist as seen by his "The Bird With the Broken Wing " story. Last week, on a field trip, John pointed out two bucks he found grazing in a seasonal wetland near Bear Creek Parkway.  He said "It's remarkable how nature can be found so close to downtown."  No doubt many move to Redmond for it's natural beauty, trails and open spaces. John Reinke is a very important and special citizen in that ---- in this urban environment ---he brings Redmond nature to our doors.  I've known John for over 10 years and we gotten to be close friends. We meet regularly at SoulFood to review his latest pictures and hear recountings of where and how he engages with Redmond's wildlife and nature.  Many of his ph...

While walking along a portion of the Bear Creek Trail south of Leary Way here in Redmond, I encountered a friend who used to live in the condo below mine.  After we greeted each other, she motioned through the open gates of an adjacent fenced-in maintenance area. She wanted me to see a robin-sized bird with long legs, whose young were skittering about on the open gravel-covered surface.  I was quite surprised and pleased to see them, and explained that this was a killdeer with its chicks.   I mentioned that I had photoed a pair of killdeer at the nearby pond more than a month previously.  We were now evidently looking at the resultant offspring After my friend departed, I continued to observe the scene.  A second adult killdeer flew up on the grass outside and scampered into the enclosure.  Now both parents were on the scene to protect their young. I set out to try to photograph the young.  This was difficult, as they were small and quite nimble, ...