I finally saw the critter down at the Golden Garden Ponds in good light,
and it looks to me to be a Muskrat. The one I saw today looks like the
same one I saw on about five previous occasions since I first wrote, but
today it was also mostly out of the water munching on shoreline
vegetation and it was a clear sunny day. I talked to a parks dept.
employee the other day and he has had reports of Beaver as well as Mink
and Muskrat at the ponds, pretty cool for an urban two year old wetland.
What I saw was not a Beaver, but there is a tree across the pond that's
completely girded - it looks well munched-on.

A pair of Hooded Mergansers and a female Bufflehead were the only
additions to the hundred or so Wigeons and Mallards in the ponds, a male
Belted Kingfisher and five Kildeer were also in the area, and coots,
geese, pigeons, crows and mostly GW Gulls, a few hybrids and three
Ring-billed Gulls were hanging around too.

=================
Cliff Drake
Seattle, (Ballard) WA
Birder at Juno.com

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