Another Day In Kent.....

Left for work early today and stopped at the Ol' Fishin' Hole and spied a
CRITTER in the water! The birds in the water were ignoring the mammal in
the water, so I knew it wasn't an otter......shucks!

Well, it was either "Muskrat Suzie" or "Muskrat Sam". I followed it with
my binoculars as it crawled ashore onto some branches and muck. It
washed its face and dove back into the water. A moment later it came
back up with a mat of green gunk. It crawled out of sight for a moment
and dropped its load. It then sat on the edge of the branch and muck
platform and continued grooming.

A pair of Canada geese flew in while I was watching the muskrat, and as I
stared at them, wondered which type they were and where they fit in on
the chart Mike Price shared with me.

After work I headed out on the Green River Trail with binoculars to see
what I could see. Well, a BALD EAGLE was back doing sentry duty in the
tall tree across the river from the Russell Road & James Street insection.

A couple of walkers heading north as I was heading south spied my
binoculars and asked me about this bird shape in a tree in the golf
course. I zoomed in on the tree and bird shape. Hmmmmmmm. It was HUGE
and very dark. I told the couple it was very likely an immature BALD
EAGLE. I then told them that bald eagles take about six years to get
their white heads and tails and how they can look pretty scraggly before
they look like bald eagles.

Later on, farther down the trail I heard a RED WING BLACK BIRD! Glancing
up a nearby tree, and there it was! My first RED WING of the season!

I made a second visit to the Ol' Fishin' Hole around 5:30 this evening.
The two pairs of AMERICAN WIGEONS were still there.....including the
"weird wigeon", two male RING NECK DUCKS, a male LESSER SCAUP, one male
BUFFLE HEAD and two or three females, a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS, the
same pair of CANADA GEESE I saw this morning (one had an unusual white
check patch), a bunch of MALLARDS and COOTS (ho hum), and the CRITTER!

Swimming lazily around the middle of the pond was the MUSKRAT.

On the other side of the pond something happened that really spooked the
ducks. A duck or coot suddenly went down in a flap and splash and all
the other ducks quacked and flew to shore, quacking nervously. The
muskrat continued its lazy swim.

A few minutes later, the geese and ducks closer to where I was standing
quacked and honked and flapped suddenly out of the water, and again the
ducks quacked nervously on shore.

Muskrats are harmless rodent type critters, but what the heck was the
critter spooking and perhaps feeding on the ducks and coots? I never saw
it......Snake? Turtle? Otter? Nessie?

I'm checking out the Ol' Fishin' Hole again on my way to work in the
morning.....

Happy Tweeting!
Lydia



Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA
lydia at wizards.net
Life Is A Soap On The Reality Side Of The Tube