3/1 "Cedar" River Trail

First things first

That is Western Red Cedar, and it's not a cedar. It's a cypress. I have to say, as a Rentonite, it's hard news to hear that the Cedar River actually has no cedars growing along its banks. We are still ahead of the curve, though, taxonomy aside. 

Not looking like a snake. . . 

I made two stops along the Cedar River today. Many more would be possible, as the Cedar River Trail runs over 17 miles from Lake Washington to Landsburg, near Maple Valley. The first stop was at this little pull off from the Maple Valley Highway, right near 140th Avenue. The trail heads under the highway from the gravel lot, and over to the golf course side of the road. I've had American Dipper along the river at this spot, although the river has been so full that there haven't been rapids in the same spots. Dippers love to play in the rapids, and I'm sure I'll see some along the river during this whole thing. 

What I did see as I came around the corner was motion! Three Common Garter Snakes were all sunning themselves on the warm pavement on the otherwise nippy day. All three showed the turquoise stripes that point towards Puget Sound Garter Snake. 

I was pretty sure I had missed them with the camera as they slithered off to cover:

But then I looked closer. . . 

Just got the sucker before it disappeared!

Cedar River Mouth

The Cedar River empties into the south end of Lake Washington, and gets pretty busy bird-wise in the winter (gulls, grebes, ducks), and migration (nearly anything, including shorebirds). Today, I got distracted by some tracks and a tree. 

The tracks were left in the river, and appear to be feline or canine. . . but which? There are no claw marks at the very end, but I would otherwise be leaning towards coyote. It was interesting to see how well the track was preserved in the mud. Would it be there in a day? A week?

The tree is a Shore Pine Pinus contortus.  I wouldn't have known this a couple weeks ago, but someone pointed out a Shore Pine to me during the Marymoor walk on Thursday. Apparently, this is the same species as a subalpine tree - lodgepole pine. Two different subspecies just grow very differently in different habitat.