A stair-climbing fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will be taking place this Saturday, Feb. 27th at Eagle Landing Park, located at 14641 25th Ave in Burien.

Eagle Landing Park is known for its 257 stairs, so this should be a good workout for a good cause.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, while located in Memphis, TN, is known worldwide as a renowned pediatric treatment and research facility.

According to their website:

St. Jude researchers are published and cited more often in high impact publications than any other private pediatric oncology research institution in America. St. Jude is a place where many doctors send some of their sickest patients and toughest cases. A place where cutting-edge research and revolutionary discoveries happen every day. We’ve built America’s second-largest health-care charity so the science never stops.

Discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. With research and patient care under one roof, St. Jude is where some of today’s most gifted researchers are able to do science more quickly.

Here are the event details:

WHAT: Fundraiser Stair Climb for St. Jude Children’s Hospital Research

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 27th at Noon (park & meet at Noon at south end of Lake Burien Park, 149th & 18th SW)

WHERE: Eagle Landing Park, (map here) which is located at the west end of SW 149th Street where it turns into 25th Avenue SW. Parking is limited, so you may need to park on the street or near Lake Burien School Park nearby. Please note that the nearest public restrooms are at Lake Burien School Park, at 149th and 18th.

From Drew deVry of Burien’s Freedom Fitness Gym:

Join us as we climb the stairs at scenic Eagle Landing Park in Burien for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital!

Participation in the Stair Climb helps raise funds to support St. Jude patients with life-threatening diseases.

No child is ever denied treatment because of a family’s inability to pay.

Bring your friends! It’s only 290 257 stairs, and it’ll be a fun event for a great cause!

INFO: How you can participate:

• Do the stair climb and get sponsors (example: someone would donate $10 each time you climb the stairs)
• Do the stair climb and donate (we ask for minimum donation of $10 – bring on the day of the event)
• Become a sponsor for the climbers

Email drew@freedomfitnessgym.com if you would like to participate.

More info at: www.freedomfitnessgym.com/community.

(Photo credit: Paul Conrath)

BTB Contributor Jim Branson alerts us that his dog “found” a pair of prescription glasses at Burien’s Eagle Landing Park over the weekend.

Here’s Jim’s note:

Did someone lose their glasses?

This dog was wearing them at Eagle Landing Park, but the prescription didn’t suit her.

I left them on the top board of the kiosk

-Jim

Here’s a closeup pic of the glasses in question, which are (hopefully) still waiting for its owner on top of the kiosk:

BTB Contributor Gregory Rehmke tips us that if you like Burien’s parks, enjoy nature and dig geology (pun intended), you might enjoy visiting Eagle Landing Park over the next few days to see some “Geology In Action,” as two large trees have slid down the hill to the beach just north of the wooden stairs.

Eagle Landing Park is located at the west end of SW 149th Street, where it meets 25th Ave SW, in Burien. The walk from the parking lot to the beach is about a quarter of a mile down a long wooden staircase, dropping 275 feet in elevation.

According to Greg:

“Steady rain has saturated the soil around these trees, and high tides have significantly undermined the four or five large trees right next to the wood stairs.

When those trees go down they will probably take the stairs and perhaps the whole bottom platform with them (see pictures below).

Monday, Feb. 1st, and Tuesday, Feb. 2nd will have very high tides, which could impact these trees:

• Mon., Feb. 1st: 13.5 at around 6:40am
• Tues., Feb. 2nd: 13.6 at around 7:15am

Gregory Rehmke
www.LibertyFlix.org
grehmke@gmail.com

According to a poster at the park entitled “Geology In Action”:

Seeing slow motion
You may not feel the earth move here, but the evidence is all around you. This whole bluff is scoop shaped, the result of a catastrophic landslide sometime in the last century. Small piles of debris show where springs and heavy rains have washed gravel and dirt down from the hillside.

Wetlands at the base of the bluff are a sign that water seeping through the hilltop’s sandy soil has run into something it can’t ooze through. In this case, it’s a layer of hard clay left behind by glaciers during the last Ice Age.

Creeping topsoil tilting trees
Gravity is causing the park’s topsoil to creep toward the beach and it’s dragging the trees down, too. Where the soil is moving slowly, the tree trunks develop a curve that keeps their growing tips pointing toward the sky.

Where the soil is moving faster than the trees can grow, the trunks are still straight. They’re tiled though, in the same direction they – and the soil – are creeping.

Here are some photos Greg took on Sunday, Jan. 31st showing the creeping “Geology In Action”:

If you plan on going to witness nature at work, be sure to take some pics and send ‘em to us at editor@b-townblog.com if you capture anything interesting!

Like to be helpful by whacking invasive ivy? This Sunday (Jan. 10th), from 10am to 1pm, YOU can help restore Burien’s Eagle Landing Park to health by joining in a “whacky” ivy removal work party.

According to BTB Contributor Jim Branson, volunteers meet on the second Sunday of every month from 10am to 1pm to remove invasive species and plant natives.

Please note that this volunteer effort is not sponsored by or affiliated with the parks department, so please bring your own tools if you have them.

You might need:

• Gloves
• Water
• Shears or loppers
• A pruning saw
• A mattock if you have one
• Layers of clothing appropriate for the weather (the forecast is for sunny and warm weather!)

As an extra bonus, a “Native Plant Steward” trained by the Washington Native Plant Society with over six years of experience battling ivy, will be on hand to answer any questions you might have.  We will be working toward the goals and priorities recently established in the Vegetation Management Plan developed by EarthCorps.

Eagle Landing Park is located at the west end of SW 149th Street, where it turns into 25th Ave SW.  Parking is limited, so some people may need to park on the street.

Also note that the nearest public restrooms are at Lake Burien School Park, at 149th and 18th.

Another reason to go? Bald Eagles actually live at Eagle Landing Park (whoda thunk it?) – here are two videos courtesy Mr. Branson:

According to our friends at Burien Parks:

“Due to seasonal changes, Burien’s two gated parks (Seahurst & Eagle Landing) are now closing earlier.

Gates now closed at 7pm.”

So, now you know to get yourself outta there before you’re trapped like you’re in a b-rate, B-Town horror movie…

BTB Contributor Jim Branson sends us word that on Saturday, Aug. 22nd, at 2pm, there will be a free guided tour of Burien’s Eagle Landing Park, sponsored by the Washington Native Plant Society.

With any luck, the fledgling eagles (as seen in these rare videos) will be testing their wings in the area, as they have been for the past two weeks.

You can also learn about over 80 species of native plants in the park, the local geology and history of the land, as well as how fish and eagles improve the health of the forest.

The tour group will meet at 2pm at the kiosk at the parking lot, and the tour might take about an hour, depending on how many people show up and how many questions they have.

Bring a bottle of water, for when you get thirsty after climbing the stairs, and perhaps a pair of binoculars for the eagles.

Also please keep in mind there are no restrooms at the park, but Lake Burien School Park, five blocks away, has a restroom.

The tour will proceed, rain or shine, but the forecast is for perfect weather.

According to the Eagle Landing Park website:

Eagle Landing Park is a small six-acre park, in a quiet, residential Burien neighborhood. It opened on June 15th, 2005, and it is located at the west end of SW 149th Street, where it meets 25th Ave SW. The walk from the parking lot to the beach is about a quarter of a mile, dropping 275 feet in elevation.

The goal of the park is to provide visitors with an intimate experience of nature close to an urban center. Instead of driving for an hour to feel at home in the woods, you can have this experience within walking distance of City Hall. The park feels much larger than it is (it’s roughly the same size as Lake Burien School Park) because the trees screen out the surrounding homes and provide the illusion of endless forest.

Adding to the impression of untamed wilderness are the screams of the eagles, who have been nesting in a tree in the middle of the park since 1989. The park is home to over fifty species of native plants, and volunteers are working to remove invasive plants such as ivy and reintroduce more species of native plants. Visitors have seen woodpeckers, hawks, raccoons, otters and foxes, and you may see these creatures if you keep your dog on a leash and walk quietly along the trail.

Eagle Landing Park is an escape from hectic urban living, but like the flowers pictured above, it is a fragile beauty dependent on the good will of visitors to remain unspoiled.

Story and Videos by Jim Branson

This year, the nesting pair at Eagle Landing Park has successfully raised two eagles to the fledgling stage. For the three previous years, they did not produce offspring successfully, possibly due to the disturbance of the creation of the park and the daily disruption of the visitors. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, eagles can be disrupted by many human activities, causing them to build the nest improperly, fail to incubate the eggs, or abandon the chicks at critical periods.

Here’s a video of one of the fledglings in a tree:

Before Eagle Landing Park was a park, the eagles had their nest on the south side of the nest tree, where it could be seen clearly from the top of the hill. Apparently in a quest for privacy, they moved the nest around to the northwest side this year. This strategy seems to have allowed them to resume raising chicks successfully. Because the nest was hidden from view, I wasn’t even certain they had eaglets until recently.

Now, there can be no mistaking them as they constantly beg for food and practice flying around the park. They are not skilled flyers, and their landings can be especially dramatic and suspenseful. They will fly around for about a month, gaining confidence. In past years, the fledglings have disappeared in September, presumably because the parents lead them to fishing grounds up north. The parents come back in October, alone, having ditched the young eagles and left them to fend for themselves.

If you visit Eagle Landing Park to see the fledglings (website here), please be quiet. Human impacts can cause the fledglings and the adults to startle from their roosts, expending calories they need to survive. Also, your silence will enable others to see the eagles, making the park experience better for all visitors.

Here’s another video:

“Fledgling eagle in the nest tree at Eagle Landing Park. The quiet one is visible here and the noisy one can be heard in the background. These two will be learning to fly and hunt in the next month…”

Courtesy BTB Contributing Photographer Gregory Rehmke comes this pic taken during Sunday’s -3.4 minus tide looking south toward Three Tree Point from Eagle Landing Park:

(click photo to see full size)

Monday, May 25th, the low tide will be -3.8 at 12:07pm.

Tuesday, May 26th, the low will be a -3.9 at 12:54pm.

So get out there, find some cool stuff and send us pics!

A very interesting and highly unusual musical art performance will be taking place Saturday (Aug. 16th) at Seahurst Park at 11:30am and Eagle Landing Park at 12:30pm.

The performance, called Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas will include opera singers and percussionists performing original work by Seattle Composer Byron Au Yong at Seahurst Park, Eagle Landing Park, Des Moines Marina, Des Moines Beach Park, and Salmon Creek Ravine.

Performers will be David Stutz and Stuart McLeod, and it’s basically an on-location opera performed at/near the water.

UPDATE: We now have a schedule, thanks to Mike Min:

• 10:30am: Salmon Creek Ravine
• 11:30am: Seahurst Park
• 12:30pm: Eagle Landing Park
• 1:30pm: Des Moines Marina (Farmer’s Market)
• 2:30pm: Marine View Park
• 3:30pm: Des Moines Beach Park

From their press release:

By taking opera out of the opera house, the Bottled Operas connect the power and beauty of traditional operatic voices with a musical experience intimately connected to nature. The site-specific performances allow Au Yong to take his music directly to places where people interact with many forms of water, creating opportunities for audience members from all walks of life to experience heightened awareness, understanding, and awe of the powerful forces of nature and humanity in a natural environment.

Percussionists play the water found at these locations with instruments that include wood, stone, bamboo, bone, rope, hide, plants, and metal. Libretti are written by eight writers from diverse cultural and artistic traditions not often represented in opera; the 64 Bottled Operas will be anything but a traditional operatic experience.

Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas will be performed by opera singer/water percussionist duos in rivers, lakes, fountains, ravines, and other waterways as part of 4Culture’s Site-Specific Performance Network on August 4, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 26, and 28.

4Culture Site-Specific Performances are FREE to the public.

Byron Au Yong creates ceremonial musical events for voices with Asian, European and hand-made instruments. His works have been performed in Canada, China, England, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Local projects include Piao Zhu: Flying Bamboo created for the Seattle Asian Art Museum and YIJU: Songs of Dislocation presented at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery. Au Yong was the only American selected for the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme where his mini-opera The River Museum was performed at Aldeburgh Music.

Performance Schedule available online at hearbyron.com and sitespecificarts.org.

NOTE: If you miss this on-location local performance, you can still see Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas at Bumbershoot in two weeks (full details here).

Here’s a musical taste of some of Au Yong’s work:

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