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Trip Report    

Day Hike - Center for Urban Horticulture

10 of us enjoyed seeing and hearing 37 species including good looks at bald eagles, northern shovelers, green-winged teals, great blue herons, a hooded merganser, tons of waterfowl, and my favorite, the wood duck. Not a drop of rain, barely any wind. Great birding conditions for mid-November.

Courtenay Schurman Courtenay Schurman
November 18, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • TRAIL CONDITIONS: In places, with recent rain, tread is slick especially near Lake Washington and the ponds. Avoid widening any social trails - best to have good tread footwear (not tennis shoes) that can handle the mud.

    The boardwalk to Yesler Swamp is slick. It has a thin metal grate - use it, as the wet wood is quite slick, as two of us in front found out -- and with cooling weather may become icy in places.

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10 of us from the Mountaineers Naturalist group met to enjoy a relatively dry, windless morning of birding from 7:30-11. We met at the central kiosk and birded clockwise, with a total of 37 species, including good looks at wood ducks (Yesler Swamp), a Cooper's Hawk, several great blue herons, plenty of shovelers, mallards, coots, wigeons, and gadwalls, a pair of green-winged teals mixed in with the shovelers, a pair of eagles enjoying a feast high up in a tree, and even a hooded merganser taking a snooze.

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Since the restrooms open at 9, we circled back around 9:30 for a brief snack/biobreak in the atrium to share stories and prepare for a visit to see the wood ducks in Yesler Swamp. Not sure where the flotilla of coots I always see were - we saw some, but this trip (due to overly loud, blaring music - Katy Perry?) we steered clear of the Canoe/crew ramp, so we could have missed some viewing possibilities. We were also on alert for belted kingfishers but didn't see or hear any this trip.

We got lucky with a great group of enthusiastic adults wanting to learn about birds and plants, and decent conditions. No swans or green heron this time, but we have all winter to find them!