Deb Beutler asked

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

Yes, yes, yes! Sea McKeon described an otter preying on a White-winged
Scoter, and Yvonne Bombadier described an otter attack on a Brant (whoa! -
major size discrepancy). The first time I ever saw a river otter was in
Grays Harbor, and it was towing a dead bird by one wing. Since I was in
Ocean Shores to help with cleanup/rehab of birds oiled by the _Nestucca_
spill, I worried that the otter might have found an oiled carcass to eat (I
understand that they will also scavenge). So I tried to intercept it when
it reached land, but it was too fast for me, escaping with its booty to the
underbrush.

I may have also already told Tweeters about the time a friend and I came
upon a still-twitching, steaming and bloody female Surf Scoter on one of
the beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Puzzled, I looked around as my
friend bashed the duck's head to make sure it was dead: two river otters
surfaced out in the water, looking back at us. I assumed we had interrupted
their meal. Sure enough, when we returned later, there was no sign of the
duck or the otters.

River otters are a comparatively common sight on the northern Olympic
Peninsula (& Strait of Georgia), and on *several* occasions I have seen sea
ducks react with extreme fright when an otter made an appearance. Even
cormorants high on pilings will strain their necks to watch an otter well
below them, and even flee in response. It's gotten so that I can almost
predict what may have caused a particular fright/flush reaction of birds --
whether it's a Bald Eagle soaring into view or an otter swimming past.

And you shoulda seen the Peregrine that snatched a Bonaparte's Gull out of
the sky the other day...

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net