On Friday, Feb. 20, 1998, James and I had to go to Lewiston, Nez
Perce Co., Idaho, on an errand. As always, we stopped at the West Pond
(a.k.a. Railroad Bridge Levy Pond) along US 12 in Lewiston. As we approached
the pond, I was shocked: there were no waterfowl on the pond. The levy pond
usually hosts hundreds of waterfowl all winter long (well into April) and a
large group of "regulars", primarily Mallards, Wood Ducks, American Wigeon,
Canada Geese, and various domestic geese and duck hybrids. We walked down
to the pond and we could clearly tell something was wrong. The birds didn't
swarm to us, begging for bread. Instead, they ignored us and were staring
at the pond. There were no waterfowl on the pond. The bread that other
people had been feeding was floating on the surface of the pond and was
littering the area. Many of the birds were clearly nervous and were flying
all around the pond. These birds were clearly nervous about something.
James and I wondered if someone had been down there harassing them (throwing
rocks at them, shooting at them, etc.). Then the answer appeared. We were
following a trail of bubbles in the water, expecting a muskrat or beaver,
with our binoculars. The head that appeared, however, clearly belonged to a
river otter. This is only the second time I have seen a river otter (the
first was three along the Payette River, Boise Co., Idaho, at Christmas this
year). There it was right in the middle of town. The pond is just over the
levy from the Clearwater River. We watched it for several minutes; it
clearly wasn't afraid of us; several times it surfaced just below us and
looked right at us. However, the ducks were very afraid of it. Whenever it
surfaced, they began to call loudly. Even when a family came to feed the
ducks, they refused to take their eyes off the water and completely ignored
the handouts (very aberrant behavior).

Has anyone else seen river otters bother birds? Do they eat ducks?


Cheers
Deb Beutler

Deb Beutler
Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 644236
Washington State Univerisity
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA
dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu