If you’re like me, most of your interaction with the East Side comes when you’re on a mall binge, in desperate search of large air-conditioned interior spaces during the 2 weeks a year when we need them. But a few weeks ago a friend and I went out to Juanita Bay Park, which shows a completely different face of the East Side. A former Native American campground, the area is now an urban wildlife habitat spanning 144 acres. It’s hard to believe all the wetlands and marshes here haven’t been built on in the real estate boom, but here they are in all their natural glory.

On weekends, volunteer rangers are present at the park to help you find any interesting or rarely-seen birds that may be migrating through the park. It helps to come early in the day, before the families with kids and dogs arrive with their more active uses of the park.

Those interested in the fauna will want to walk out on wooden boardwalks that allow you amazingly close glimpses of the wildlife — if you’re quiet. On a recent trip, my friend saw a Virginia Rail chick that wandered through the muddy ground, blissfully unaware of the two humans hovering right above it with dozens of pounds of camera gear, holding their breath. There were also two kinds of heron, Green and the Great Blue pictured here:

There’s more prosaic waterfowl as well, with families of ducks and ducklings resting on logs only a few feet away from the boardwalks:

Finally, on the southern edge of the park, there’s a nesting pair of Bald Eagles to practice your binocular skills with:

Google Map: Juanita Bay Park