Bellevue Botanical Garden — Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026

Currently extremely fragrant with the blooming witch-hazel, winter daphne, and paperbush! There’s also an abundance of these cute little snowdrop flowers I hadn’t seen before. Saw a beautiful gadwall duck, a busy honey bee (already), and both a spotted towhee and grey squirrel enjoying berries from a tree. Highly recommend experiencing the cool light patterns inside the Night Blooming dome if you’re walking past, crossing the suspension ravine bridge to learn about native birds (western tanager, steller’s jay, pileated woodpecker, and spotted towhee), and checking out the Lost Bird Project. That last one is an exhibit that the BBG will have for only a year (don’t know when that started). There are information signs you can read to learn about five birds (Labrador duck, heath hen, passenger pigeon, great auk, and Carolina parakeet) driven to extinction. Totally unplanned visit that was very worthwhile. My light colored sneakers even stayed clean with only the occasional mud puddle to step around.