Howdy,

I've had two River Otter sightings in the ship canal this summer, one swam
right under the sidewalk in Commodore Park, might have a den or a food
cache?. There is a game trail around the locks and I've seen River Otter
tracks for several years I also saw five goldeneyes fly by this morning
from the parking lot at Golden Gardens Park, My impression was Barrow's,
but they could have been Common, they were faster than I was.

At the time I was watching four Western Grebes, two Rhinoceros Auklets and
two Double-crested Cormorants feeding in the same small area and being
harassed by a flock of Gulls, including Mew, Bonaparte's and Heerman's.
Must have been a school of small fish. There were a few Horned and
Red-necked Grebes around as well. Also a raft of about 100 ducks well to
the north, Scoters I think, but they were too far away to ID properly. The
pond is full of Mallards and Wigeons, but nothing else right now. Four or
so of the Mallards are blondes like Narendra described.


Cliff Drake
Seattle WA
cliffdrake at qwest.net


At 03:31 PM 10/30/2001 -0500, Hughbirder at aol.com wrote:
>This morning at Larsen Lake in the Lake Hills Greenbelt of Bellevue I saw two
>river otters on the shore. These are first in 2-3 years at the lake. One was
>rolling in the grass and preening itself on the south shore. The other was
>walking up and down a downed log that has fallen in the lake. Great to see
>these mammals back.
>
>I also saw the first Common Goldeneyes of the fall in the greenbelt, one
>female at Larsen Lake and one female at Phantom Lake.
>
>Hugh Jennings
>Bellevue, WA
>hughbirder at aol.com

Cliff Drake
Seattle WA
cliffdrake at qwest.net