Raindrops on Pussy Willows

The soggy marshy bits of Magnuson Park make an odd kind of wetland. To be precise, it's a wetland themed garden, constructed, dredged and planted to approximate what the area around the park was like before 1916, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished the Ship Canal, and lowered the level of Lake Washington by about nine feet. There are of course important differences between this and a natural wetland: crushed limestone trails, metal bridges, and above all, drains, so that the water doesn't inconvenience its human visitors too much.
The result is joyously birdy. Starting at the end of January, red-winged blackbirds start calling. Ducks, coots and pied-billed grebes forage around the ponds. And this weekend, the willows are blooming.