Subject: Capitol Lake estuary
Date: Nov 20 12:38:37 2003
From: Jason Paulios - jpaulios at earthlink.net


To follow up on Rob's posting about waterfowl on Capitol Lake I have to say
that I too look forward to this study (won't get into the feasibility of the
project...after seeing what they want to do with West Bay- i.e. Mallard/C.
Goose lounging area / watch your trash fly DIRECTLY into the sound).
Waterfowl numbers are quite high at Capitol Lake throughout the fall/winter
season, but I suspect that Scaup numbers (at least Greaters) are much higher
in the Sound (just that they can be harder to view from shore)...also
probably have good numbers at the smaller lakes around Oly (Black Lake, Lake
Lawrence) - any numbers Kelly?

Here's some numbers from last year's Oly CBC at Capitol Lake -
1 Eared Grebe (one there also two Sundays ago )
52 Gadwall
1 Eurasian Wigeon
425 Am. Wigeon
100 Mallard
6 N. Pintail
10 Canvasback
31 R/N Duck
530 Scaup
256 Bufflehead
scattered C. Goldeneye (gone are the large roosting flocks of Barrow's that
supposedly once used Capitol Lake-See Scott Richardson's East Bay Bird Guide
published by BHAS)
3 Com. Merganser
37 Ruddy Duck
57 A. Coot
3 Virginia Rail (near the interpretive center, always comes through for us
in the CBC)

Not bad for a cesspool. I'd trade the Gadwall, Ruddy Duck and Coot for both
Goldeneyes and shorebird opportunities.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA