There was what looked like a goldeneye at the Ballard Locks/Commodore Park
this morning. Brown head with a bright yellow eye and a mottled gray and
white body. I didn't notice the collar, but I saw what looked like the start
of a white patch between the eye and the bill. Could this be a male in
eclipse plumage? This is the third time this month I've seen a bird like
this, but this is the first time I've noticed the start of a white spot. It
was near a small group of mallards almost under the rr bridge between the
beach and the tie-off wall. Nothing else notable, a female Anna's
Hummingbird near the nursery and the usual gulls. Doesn't Ma GW Gull get
tired of the incessant crying of her kid? Last week there was a juv. GWGU
with a sculpin halfway down its throat. There was no way it could get any
more down. I guess that's one way to shut it up.

If anyone's interested in marine mammals there's a juv harbor seal that's
been in the large lock for almost two months. When it's not floating around
people watching it swims from one end of the lock chamber to the other on
the surface, dives, swims underwater to the far end and repeats the process.
It also eats the seaweed/algae off the concrete lock wall. Someone said it's
herding fish against the gate.

Cliff Drake
Ballard-Seattle, WA
mailto:cdrake at zipcon.net