Volunteers toil at Marymoor Park as part of Day of Caring

With shovels and rakes in hand, Microsoft employees attacked blackberry bushes and Scot's broom shrubs eating up meadows and grasslands along the birding trail at Marymoor Park.

On a normal day, these Web-site and computer-software designers would be attending meetings and sitting at desks in a temperature-controlled environment. But Friday, the 70 volunteers labored to remove enormous bundles of invasive plants from the bird-watching trail at the park near Redmond.

Their efforts were part of United Way of King County's Day of Caring. Across the county Friday, more than 7,000 volunteers worked on 366 projects.

Most of the projects involved simple hard work and sweat, said Anita Kelley, spokeswoman for United Way.

Dozens of Home Depot employees spent the day at Northshore Family Center in Bothell, building a porch, planting a garden, installing a playground and a fence, Kelley said. AT&T employees scrubbed kitchen walls and ovens at St. Martin's on Westlake Avenue in Seattle, which serves the homeless and other people in need.

Microsoft had the most employees working as volunteers, with 3,000 of the 7,000 people laboring during the Day of Caring coming from the software giant.

It was a break from the daily grind, said Karen Burger and Michael Wolf, as they dragged a tarp heaped with Scot's broom (also known as Scotch broom) across the meadow to be dumped.

"This is nice. We're always cooped up in the office," Wolf said. "We're in a job where you are always multitasking, and this is a good way to focus on one thing and see how the accomplishments show so fast."

The group was making fast work of clearing the plants taking over grasslands near the start of the birding trail, which loops in a two-plus-mile walk through six habitats.

The Eastlake Washington Audubon Society has been working for more than a year and a half to enhance and expand the birding trail, said Jim Rettig, Audubon Society member overseeing the project.

The group, working in partnership with King County Parks and Recreation, received a $100,000 grant from the county to help.

Kiosks soon will be installed with information about the kinds of birds spotted recently along the trail, Rettig said. And the Audubon Society has hired an artist to work on interpretive signs that will be installed along the path, he said. Every Saturday, Audubon Society members meet for a three-hour work session at the park.

Watching the dozens of volunteers hack away at invasive shrubs, Karen Park, a longtime Audubon Society member, said she was amazed at how much work they were getting done.

"They are just busy bees," she said. "They cluster around something, and it gets done."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com