Monday 10/28 I was collecting water samples on the beaches from downtown
Seattle to Normandy Park; it was generally pretty quiet, but as I rounded
Alki and headed south, things picked up. About a quarter mile south of Alki
were 11 harlequin ducks by Constellation Park, on the rocks near the
apartments over the water. The tide was pretty high at the time. Lincoln
park had one harlequin near the Fauntleroy ferry. I regard this stretch from
Alki to Fauntleroy as being a highly reliable area for harlequins, in
season.

At the Normandy Park community beach were about 300 surf scoters, the
greatest number I've seen in a while. At low tide there's a substantial
exposed mussel bed, but the tide was still quite high when I came across
these.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com