Today was the day scheduled to lead the 2012 Advancing Leadership tour through the park. The rain slammed against my window so hard this morning that I was really beginning to have my doubts about the whole thing, but as the time slated for the tour approached, the weather began to clear up a little bit. I wore my raincoat and rainpants anyway, just in case. More than twenty-five hardy northwesterners showed up at the park raring to go. They arrived about fifteen minutes late to find no parking at the park. A group from Highline Community College had arrived ahead of them and taken all of the available parking places. I'd only been given forty-five minutes total in which to get them through the park. which included the time I needed to present my little preparatory speech at the beginning. My normal wildlife tour takes about two hours, so it was obvious to me that we weren't going to get very far through the park. The way things worked out, these fun folks were destined to be late arriving at their next park as well.
I arrived at the park about twenty minutes early so that I could scope it out before our visitors arrived and decide on the best way to get them through the park in the available time, as if that's ever really happened. I went down to Marlake first and startled my first bullfrog of the season. I saw three male mallards, but no females, so the females must be on the nest. I saw three female buffleheads, but no males......so, the males are on the nest? Don't be silly! Like that's ever going to happen. A male and female red-winged blackbird were singing in the reeds and this beautiful northern flicker was calling from a nearby tree. I saw three tiny red-legged frogs in the wet area in between the orchard and the blue gravel trail. These little frogs were only about the size of a dime. That was all the time I had to look for wildlife before heading back to the parking lot. As it turned out, I could have spent another fifteen minutes exploring. The only person waiting in the parking area was Margery Godfrey of the Friends of the Hylebos. The fact that the Advancing Leadership group was late gave us time to plan our course of action. Because I'm most knowledgeable about what lives in the park, Margery asked me to give the introductory speech, then we planned to split into two separate groups and head in different directions. The plan half-worked, which is half more than it usually does. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
Everyone followed me as far as the Deep Sinks, where two little red-legged frogs hung around to watch the show. The frogs were so small and well-camouflaged that people had trouble finding them, so we spent quite a bit of our allotted time at the Deep Sinks looking for frogs. In what seemed like an unreasonably short time, Margery started tapping her watch, letting me know that my time was up and it was time to turn the group around and head them back to the parking lot. But, we've only gotten to the Deep Sinks, said I. Too bad, we're out of time, head 'em out. Bwaaaahahahaha, like that's really going to happen! Instead of heading right, and out of the park, at the fork in the trail, Margery continued around the short side of the loop. Whoops! Her end of the group was now in the lead, and so far ahead of me that I wasn't able to head them off and turn them around, so I opted to follow Margery. Her end of the group actually made it all of the way down to Brooklake, while my end of the group got delayed looking for amphibian eggs at the owl tree and talking about the baby barred owl.
This beautiful spotted towhee was singing it's heart out in a tree near the meadow, where we spotted three brush rabbits munching down on fresh spring grass. Needless-to-say, we were very, very late arriving back at the parking lot. I made sure that everyone had cards with my contact information and the link to the blog. That way, they can get in touch with me if they want to get the full two-hour tour. So, ahhhh.....the city is expecting me to get 100 fifth-graders through the park on Monday. Considering how well two of us did with less than thirty adults, what do you think our odds are on Monday? It's going to be exciting! Life in the wetland is never boring! I love this life!
Teri I. Lenfest
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