Interesting birds and mammals both ways on my walk to/from work today.

On the way *to* work this morning:

I saw several creeper "firsts" for me -- two at once (which surprised me;
I'd never
thought about it before), one going the "wrong" direction down a tree,
albeit only very
briefly, one out on the outermost twigs of a tree as opposed to the trunk or
a large
branch, and a fledgling in begging posture, fluttering his wings. They were
distant
enough, quick enough, and looked enough alike that I couldn't tell whether
it was the
fledgling that was doing the unusual stuff.

I also heard what must have been a medium-sized mammal pulling hard on some
vegetation on the ground. I never saw it, but it must have been something
chunkier
than a squirrel, and the activity didn't sound like anything I'd seen a
rabbit or an opossum
do. When I investigated, I found myself amid a burrow system. Is it
possible that this
was a mountain beaver? This was in Redmond, up the hill from the west side
of
Lake Sammamish.

On the way *from* work this evening:

I got several looks, and one ridiculously close, very long look, at my life
western screech
owl tonight. I estimated him at 8" long, yellow irises, brownish, with
strong horizontal barring
and a short tail. No sign of ear tufts although his head was rather squared
off. The facial disk
was bordered in white (but not heavily like a saw whet) on the inside and
black on the outside.
He was so close that Michael Jordan could probably have jumped high enough
to touch him.
And this bird was almost tame enough to let him.

I also saw three bats all together (just leaving a roost?). They seemed
pretty small, even as
small bats go. Little brown myotis, perhaps?

Sure beats rush hour on the 520 bridge...

Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA