Taking a stroll down the Juanita Bay pedestrian bridge now comes with lessons in ornithology and history.

On Oct. 17, the Juanita Neighborhoods Association, Eastside Audubon and the City of Kirkland celebrated the installation of two new signs at the end of the Juanita Bay pedestrian bridge near 98th Avenue NE.

Kirkland-based scientific illustrator Julie Selan drew the bird illustrations for the “Dining on the Bay” sign, which also includes text describing the feast nature provides to the birds of Juanita Bay.

“I’m happy with how it turned out,” Selan said as she looked at the sign.

Eastside Audubon President Jan McGruder oversaw the development of the “Dining on the Bay” sign. “I just love it — it educates people as to bird behavior,” McGruder said. “They may not realize all the ways birds use the bay.”

The Kirkland Heritage Society and local families provided the photos and information for the “Juanita in the ’40s and ’50s” sign, which was organized by Juanita Neighborhoods Association member Karen Lightfeldt.

Funding for the interpretive signs came from the city through the Kirkland Neighborhood grant program and donations to Eastside Audubon.

The two new signs join two other historical signs installed at the end of the bridge last year, and the historical sign is the seventh in a series of historical interpretive signs created by the Juanita Neighborhoods Association, an initiative Lightfeldt has been working on for the last six years. Other signs are located further down on the pedestrian bridge and at Juanita Beach Park.

“There have been four different chairs of the Neighborhoods Association, and they each have supported me in this,” Lightfeldt said.

Eastside Audubon also has signage on the osprey platform at Juanita Bay Park and has signs and kiosks on display in the bird loop at Marymoor Park in Redmond. While no other signs are currently in the works, Lightfeldt and McGruder hope to install more alongside the “Dining on the Bay” sign.

“We’d really like to fill up this side,” Lightfeldt said, referring to the empty spaces on either side of the bird sign.

For more information, visit juanitaneighborhoods.org or eastsideaudubon.org.