Various dates: Meadowbrook Pond is a small pond/park in north Seattle (Wedgwood/Lake City area).
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Queen Anne's Lace
It's a good birding spot and sometimes has naturalist events. This set includes photos from several visits, and one naturalist walk on beavers and other pond-based critters.
September 24, 2010: Naturalist/ranger Brian Gay led a short walk/talk on the wildlife of the pond. Some beaver facts I learned: The red coloring on the front teeth on this beaver skull up there is not discoloration; it's another kind of enamel. The hard red cover wears down more quickly than the softer enamel behind it, and that creates a natural chisel shape.
Brian also had a pelt to show us, and we could see up close the two kinds of fur the beaver has: a downy fur under a more wiry top layer. The downy fur is what was used in felting.
We took water samples to see what kind of critters live in the pond. Brian explained you can tell a lot about the health of a body of water by what's living in it.
Caddis- & mayflies? You have excellent, clean water. Dragonflies mean the water is not quite as clean, and midges and black flies mean the water is not doing so well.
We didn't see any beavers clearly that night, but one eagle-eyed attendee spotted the ripples one made as it swam across the pond.
The walk came to an end just as the moon started to rise over the trees.
December 7, 2009: On my first visit to this pond, the pond had frozen with these bubbles near the surface (possibly called by methane since the pond was built over sewage but whatever).
April 11, 2010
April 11, 2010
March 27, 2013
March 27, 2013: I spoke to a senior lady who was there with her binoculars. She noted that after a heron was shot there (in 2010 - story here http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2013135123_heron12m.html) she hadn't seen them around, so I was happy to spot one some distance away hunched up in a tree, and I pointed it out to her. She was also glad to see it and know they are back to using the pond.