Over the last several years, when I do my annual waterfowl surveys in January, Capitol Lake
has had the second highest waterfowl count of any lake in my District which includes Pierce
and Thurston counties (Lawrence Lake is number 1). Steve Shanewise has apparently argued for
the discontinuance of the saltwater flushing that used to occur annually and he has often
pointed out that aquatic plants (more than just Eurasian milfoil) and freshwater molluscs
have increased in abundance each year since the saltwater flushing was discontinued.

Last summer, Greg Falxa did some bat telemetry, putting transmitters on bats at the Woodard
Bay colony of Yuma Myotis. He was surprised to find that bats (at least two of them, if I
remember correctly) were traveling to Capitol Lake to forage each night. Greg made lots of
observations of bats foraging over Capitol Lake, taking video of some of the activity as
viewed in the lights from some of the nearby buildings. The numbers were remarkable. The
lake attracts thousands of bats each night during summer.

I believe that the activities of humans usually don't destroy wildlife habitat.
The habitat is just changed so that it is functions for a different community of organisms.
Sometimes, it's an undesireable (from a human perspective) community. Even an open cesspool
has a community of life. It's just not one we would consider of any aesthetic or economic
value. For me, the future of Capitol Lake involves similar questions about what we consider to
be a desireable community. Right now there are undesireable and highly desireable elements to
the Capitol Lake community of life.

I spent two days last week helping with scoter captures in south Sound and didn't see any
scaup out on the saltwater. On Friday, 5 Trumpeter Swans flew over as we waited by the mist
nets at the south end of Eld Inlet. In the dark, as we headed south in Eld Inlet, I saw
more Bufflehead flushing ahead of us than I've ever seen in one place (although Capitol
Lake has impressive numbers of Bufflehead each winter).

One last thing I will mention comes from my formative years as a teenager in Olympia (1970s).
I well remember the flights of goldeneyes going over 4th Ave bridge each winter evening at dusk.
The flocks went over one after the other in such rapid succession that the whistling of their
wings never left the air waves. It was absolutely a happening each winter. I miss it.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Jason Paulios wrote:

> Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 12:38:37 -0800
> From: Jason Paulios <jpaulios at earthlink.net>
> To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Capitol Lake estuary
>
> 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
>
>
>