A beautiful, if initially cold Easter morning, not too many people on Cougar Mountain, about 2/3 to 3/4 of them trail runners. Ample parking spots at Harvey Manning trailhead.
It is definitely getting green in the forest. Wildflowers are still sparse. It seems too early for the little flowers of the forest such as Spring Beauty. But violets are starting, Salmonberry are abundant and many more.
It's a short time window between the appearance of forest flowers along the edges of the trails and the time when King County Parks mows them all down. There is too much "maintenance" and meddling in the supposedly Wildland Park as far as I am concerned.
Butterflies are beginning to appear, too.
And then there are acoustic delights which WTA won't let us post, alas! In the denser, older sections of the forest, Pacific Wrens are singing (see/hear link). In the Clay Pit, numerous Pacific Chorus Frogs were singing their heart out. (It's not croaking, for Pete's sake.) No audio recording, but their "babies" can be spotted in some of the puddles in the Pit (see link).
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