The “song of the loon” once heard will never be forgotten. Piercing the evening across a lake in northern North America the male loon defends his territory with yodels that can be heard up to 16 km away.
The Bird with Flaming Red Feet
The Bird with Flaming Red Feet is a lively and heartfelt natural history of the Pigeon Guillemot, a charismatic seabird with a surprising story to tell. Found along the coast around the North Pacific and from Alaska to Southern California, this talkative and often-overlooked bird plays an outsized role in the health of marine ecosystems, earning its status as an “indicator species.”
Crows of the Eastside
Marymoor Park Restoration: Looking back on 2025 & Goals for 2026
Marymoor Park Restoration
Looking back on 2025 & Goals for 2026
Eastside Audubon hosts monthly work parties at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA to restore and maintain the ecosystem for birds and other wildlife. Volunteers gather every month to remove invasive species, plant trees, and help support a healthy ecosystem.
This year, we had more volunteers join us than in 2024, which allowed us to focus on managing the meadow and start a new project by the viewing mound. Together, we spent many Saturday mornings removing and mulching the pesky invaders popping up in the meadow (mostly Himalayan blackberry, Scotch broom, and English hawthorn). We also started our multi-year viewing mound project, kicking it off by planting 414 native trees and shrubs, including evergreen huckleberry, mock orange, serviceberry, and sword fern!
As our long-time volunteer and dedicated scotch broom identifier, Glenn Eades, often reminds us, a huge part of restoration is managing what we’ve restored. In 2026, we plan to continue managing the meadow, planting and mulching around the viewing mound (our next planting day is in February), and possibly begin working in the riparian area along the bird loop and the shrubland area.
We couldn’t do this incredible work without the many volunteers who dedicate the first Saturday of each month to join us in caring for this beautiful bird loop trail. It is truly amazing how much we can accomplish together in just 3 hours. Let’s have another great year!
Jenna Cardoso (she/her)
Marymoor Restoration Project Manager & Board Member
Photo of the Month: November
Mallard
Photo of the Month: October
Count Birds at Home for the CBC
Count Birds at Home for the CBC
The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) Feeder Watch program is the fast-growing part of the annual Christmas Bird Count. Thousands of people watch birds in their yards and at their feeders and now they are joining to count birds for the CBC.
We invite you to join them and count birds for this year’s CBC on Saturday, December 20.
By volunteering to count birds in your yard whether you have a feeder or not, you will contribute to the science of tracking the birds in our community and we need the data.
Registration for the CBC Feeder Watch Program is open and will close on December 13. To register, first you must check if you living within the CBC Count Circle. This is a 15-mile radius centered on Beaver Lake in Sammamish. You can check if you (or a friend!) live within the counter circle using this interactive map.
HERE IS WHAT TO DO
During a two-hour period when you know birds will be present at your feeders, watch and count which birds visit your backyard. We will provide a tally sheet and further instructions. All you need to do is spot and identify birds! Once you have the bird totals you send the tally sheet back to us and we do the rest, and we add your bird totals to the birds the field teams find as they scour parks and the lakeshore for birds during the day. It’s easy and it’s fun and your data is important.
If you have any questions or would like further information on the Feeder Watch program, contact CBC compiler Andy McCormick at amccormick@eastsideaudubon.org
Please visit our CBC page to learn more about being a Feeder Watcher or joining a Field Team!
Green Tip of the Month
Glaucous-winged Gull
Christmas Bird Count – December 20, 2025
Every December, thousands of volunteers across North America head outdoors to count birds — helping scientists understand how our feathered neighbors are doing. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) isn’t just a fun birding day — it’s the oldest and largest citizen science project in the world, and it depends entirely on volunteers like you.
Photo of the Month: September
Photo of the Month: August
Lights Out, Community In: Taking Action for Migratory Birds in Redmond
Lighting can attract large numbers of night-migrating birds. Birds drawn into lights often become entrapped and circle the lit area, which can deplete their energy stores needed for migration and put them more at risk of colliding with buildings and infrastructure. Every year in the U.S., nearly 1 billion birds die from building collisions, most of them migratory species traveling at night. But here’s the hopeful part: when communities step in with science-based solutions, the results are dramatic.
Warbling Vireo Gets an Update
Birdability Week
Join us in October as Eastside Audubon hosts two accessible and inclusive bird outings inspired by Birdability during Birdability Week from October 20-26, 2025, a weeklong effort to support the commitment to make birding accessible to everybody.
