photo Marcus R. Donner

There’s still time to order a Blast and yam fries at the Maple Leaf Grill before it closes for good Friday night.

Take a souvenir photo, too. (Sorry, the T-shirts are all gone.)

In the good news department, the new Greenlake Village PCC store opens in just two weeks, at 9 a.m. on June 4th.

It’s just down Fifth Avenue Northeast, at the site of the old dairy plant. Details are here.

Improving on a good idea:

NEW - Thanks, Maple Leaf Dog Oasis!

Old - at the park’s north entrance.

Want to make one for elsewhere in the park or neighborhood? Directions are here.

Goings-on at the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park this weekend:

Today the Fairview Christian School and Child Center is holding a Jog-a-Thon:

We’re spending the day jogging, running, and enjoying the outdoors. We’re raising funds for our PTF group to purchase new musical instruments for our students to use in their Performing Arts classes. Come out and support the kids as they run, skip and jump for music!

The school is at 844 N.E. 78th St.

Saturday there will be an emergency disaster drill at the pavilion from 9 a.m to noon:

The Maple Leaf Hub is a group of volunteers that will activate during a major emergency/disaster at the Maple Leaf park to help the neighborhood get through the disaster. We will help manage resources such as volunteers, tools, utilities, light search and rescue, and limited disaster first aid. For this drill it will be up by the picnic shelter on the top bench of the park. The hub has amateur radio operators to communicate with the city’s Office of Emergency Management and other hubs in our region.

Sunday there will be a 30-minute fun run at the park to raise money for the Northwest SIDS Foundation:

From Garrett:

I wanted to let you know that this Sunday a group of friends and myself are putting on an event at the Maple Leaf park. It’s called “The Max K”.

Late last year one of our good friends (and Maple Leaf resident) lost one of their 7- month old twins to SIDS. His name was Max Hadley.

So we are putting on a 30-minute fun run event at the park with friends and family to raise money for the Northwest SIDS Foundation. Our event will be this Sunday from 3-5 p.m. The event will take place at the covered picnic area.

Finally, someone has added a gentle reminder at the north entrance to residents and their dogs:

This post is from our sister site My Ballard.

The “Click it or Ticket” patrols will be back in King County from May 19 through June 1, with officers on the lookout for unbuckled and distracted drivers.

The campaign has been particularly successful in catching drivers on their cell phones, with 836 cell phone and texting violations written during the last Click it or Ticket campaign period in April.

Since the “Handheld Cell Phone Use” law became a primary state law back in June 2010 the number of drivers cited for cell phone use per month statewide jumped from 700 to 4000.

Similarly, after the primary seat belt law came into effect in June 2002 seat belt violations initially increased and then the seat belt use rate increased.

“This model of high visibility enforcement has proven to change behaviors and is now being applied to distracted driving. Texting and cell phone usage is aggravating to so many motorists and it remains a growing public health and traffic safety issue,” writes the Washington Traffic Safety Committee in their latest press release.

During last year’s Click it or Ticket campaign at this time of year officers issued 2,963 seat belt violations and 1,897 cell phone and texting violations state wide.

In King County, between May 19 and June 1, the Auburn, Bellevue, Black Diamond, Burien, Covington, Federal Way, Issaquah, Kent, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park, Maple Valley, Mercer Island, Port of Seattle, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, SeaTac, Seattle, Snoqualmie, Tukwila and Woodinville Police Departments will be teaming up with the Washington State Patrol to participate in these extra patrols.

Several have asked us what will become of the former San Marco grocery on Fifth Avenue Northeast.

It’s not going to be another pocket grocery.

It looks like the neighboring Metropolitan Music, 8414 Fifth Ave. N.E., is expanding into the San Marco space.

Also, Rosia asks, via Facebook: “Hi! Any idea what hotel is being built at 1st and 97th NE? I can’t figure it out… Thanks!”

Thanks to Sue, we have an updated answer: “The project seems to be moving ahead and was likely stalled by the transit work in that area.”

The project is a six-story Hampton Inn & Suites, with 155 rooms, and activity as recently as April 16th. It’s on the site of the former Marie Callender’s , 9538 First Ave N.E., which closed in summer 2012.

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76 degrees.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 78.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 80.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 72.

Saturday: Return to rain.

The 33rd bird on our Maple Leaf Reservoir Park bird list showed up on Mother’s Day.

It’s a Barn Swallow, and there were three of them catching bugs at the upper park Sunday afternoon.

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

Glistening cobalt blue above and tawny below, Barn Swallows dart gracefully over fields, barnyards, and open water in search of flying insect prey. Look for the long, deeply forked tail that streams out behind this agile flyer and sets it apart from all other North American swallows.

Just Thursday we were (again) wishing for an Osprey - and shortly after 4 p.m. today it arrived.

Ospreys (fish hawks) are not uncommon visitors to Maple Leaf in the spring and summer.

They have many times been seen perched on the Comcast tower on Roosevelt Way Northeast, eating fish taken from Lake Union. See Dale’s comment on Thursday’s sharpie post.

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons.

Nearby, there’ s a large concentration of nesting Ospreys every year at Everett’s American Legion Memorial Park, where they nest largely on pilings in Port Gardner Bay.

To get an idea of what that looks like, here’s an Osprey cam from Montana, also from Cornell (as is the photo, above).

And that makes 32 species in our park bird list. Today’s park Osprey was over the northeast corner. About 15 minutes later two Ospreys were heard overhead a bit further north.

…look who’s back this morning.

This weekend we spotted a different bird from Maple Leaf Reservoir Park - a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

A tiny hawk that appears in a blur of motion—and often disappears in a flurry of feathers. That’s the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the smallest hawk in North America and a daring, acrobatic flier.

Not only that - THIS sharpie was chasing crows just north of the park - crows that were considerably bigger than the hawk.

From “Hawks in Flight” (Dunne, Sibley and Sutton):

“They are feisty and frequently harass other raptors as large or larger than themselves … during migration.”

This makes the 31st species on our park bird list. (We’re still waiting for an Osprey.)

(Photo by Steve Berardi)

Contractors for Sound Transit this morning closed a lane near the popular Interstate 5 entrance off Northeast 80 Street to install monitoring equipment to check on Brenda as she tunnels her way south from the Maple Leaf Portal.

“As early as Wednesday, May 7, Sound Transit’s contractor will install equipment along the Northgate Link tunnel alignment to monitor vertical movement of utility pipes (water and sewer lines) for the Northgate Link Extension,” according to a release from Sound Transit.

The monitors, called Utility Settlement Points, are glued to the top of a utility pipe inside a cast iron cover and inserted below the surface of the road and will be in place throughout construction of the Northgate Link Extension. This work will be done throughout the month of May and will take 1 to 3 days to complete at each location.

• Installation of the monitors requires drilling into the concrete, removing ground material with a vacuum truck and attaching the monitor to the utility.

• The contractor will perform this work between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays. No high impact work will occur until after 8 a.m. A vacuum truck makes a noise similar to a diesel engine running at high rpms.

There are five work locations: (more…)

Today is GiveBIG day, the day to donate to your favorite nonprofit charities, and have your dollars “stretched” by The Seattle Foundation.

Each donation up to $5,000 per donor, per organization, made to the 1,600 nonprofit organizations profiled on The Seattle Foundation’s website between midnight and midnight Pacific Time today, May 6, 2014, will receive a prorated portion of The Seattle Foundation’s matching funds, or “stretch pool.” The amount of the “stretch” depends on how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day. As long as you have access to the web and a credit card, you can participate!

To donate, go here. Or act on any of the many emails you’ve probably received this week from nonprofits.

Local non-profits we’ve heard from this week include:

The Maple Leaf Community Council, which has declared May its Membership Month. Their link is here.

North East Seattle Together (NEST) which supports seniors and building community. That link is here. Disclosure: the editor is a member of the NEST board.

Seattle Neighborhood Farmer’s Markets, here.

The Northwest Puppet Center, here.

Seattle Audubon Society, here.

At dawn this morning a woman watched a man climb up her balcony to the apartment above - and called Seattle police.

Officers arrived around 5 a.m. to find a man climbing back down from the third floor of the building, in the 1900 block of Northeast 85th Street (just across Lake City Way from Maple Leaf proper).

From a police release:

Officers could see that the man was wearing a backpack. The suspect jumped to the ground from the second story and began running. Officers gave chase, and the suspect refused the officers’ orders to stop.

Other officers arrived in the area and set up containment. The suspect was spotted running through several yards and was eventually taken into custody several blocks away.

Further investigation by the officers determined that the suspect had indeed entered an occupied apartment on the third floor through an unlocked sliding glass door. Despite a lengthy search by officers, the suspect’s backpack was not located….

The 55-year-old suspect was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.

Notes about last week’s Olympic View book sale and about Fine Impressions Gallery.

At the book sale, we purchased (for a gift) a fine copy of “Mapmaker’s Art,” seen at right.

Inside we found a handwritten note concerning the family tree of a previous owner, and signed “Love, Mom.”

If the previous owner would like that note returned, just tell us.

The other note is from Fine Impressions, which faces loosing their picture framer for the past 13 years.

“The landlord is selling the building. She does not drive, so we are looking for somewhere within walking distance of the gallery,” Carol writes. “Mai Ling suggested we contact you to find the grapevine.”

WANTED MIL OR APT IN SMALL BUILDING NE SEATTLE

Looking for neat, quiet, sunny (for Seattle) place in the Maple Leaf, Green Lake, Ravenna, Wallingford, Phinney Ridge area. Woman, professional picture framer(Maple Leaf )and artist, neat and quiet, no pets (but pet friendly), no car, single. Willing to assist with gardening. Over ten years at current address (owner selling building). Prefer under $950 with utilities. Thanks for your consideration.

Josh emails early this afternoon:

I live just south of the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, and on Wednesday, April 30, I found a large radio controlled airplane near my garage. I’m assuming the plane crash landed there, though it is not visibly damaged. I hope to return it to its owner.

To the editor: Can you help facilitate this?