It's hard to say what counts as the first flower of the year in Eagle Landing Park.  A currant started blooming before the snow and the ice storm, but that is probably a non-native cultivar planted in the park by mistake.  A trailing blackberry vine has a couple of flowers, but those are probably a mistake by a confused plant that got its signals wrong.  Indian plum, traditionally the first flowering native plant in local forests, is dangerously close to blooming.  I feel like the Indian plum is teasing me with its big fat buds that won't quite open.  Any day now. 

Whales were reported at Vashon Island and West Seattle.  I looked, but I couldn't see any from Eagle Landing Park.  I have lived near Eagle Landing Park much of my life, and I've never seen a whale in person.  I did see ducks and cormorants, and I heard a loon.  A hummingbird was chirping while dive-bombing in a territorial display. 

Red elderberry is starting to leaf out.  The tips of the red huckleberry are swelling.  Some of the snowberry bushes are leafing out while others look totally dormant.