For what it's worth, I go kayaking in Union Bay with some regularity, and
I've seen beavers more than once in the water surrounding the fill,
including as recently as last summer. I've seen muskrats, too, but I've
never seen a nutria there, from water or land. Has anyone else? Nutrias
spend a lot of their time on land, unlike muskrats, beavers, and river
otters, and I've seen them feeding out in fields at the Columbian
White-tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge near Cathlamet. I think they're
especially common in the southwest corner of the state. Are there really
records throughout the Puget Trough, Kelly?

I've never seen an otter near the fill, but they are essentially
everywhere, so it wouldn't be surprising. It's indeed characteristic of
them to spin on their own axis in the water, as David noted, and Glenda's
description sure sounds like an otter to me. It's very much like an otter
but not like a beaver to "resurface and peer at us again."

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416