Hey tweets, there have been a *lot* more visitors to the Fill lately,
not just birders, but photographers, dog-walkers, joggers, fishers,
baby-outing folks, sun-tanners, etc.

All this activity puts more pressure on the birds, but there is
additional pressure too: nutria. The nutria population seems to be
exploding. I will notify the CUH people about my sightings of nutria,
and I wish you would do so, as well. We need to start keeping track of
where we see them, how many there are, and whether they look like
they're having babies.

The nutria are having two especially bad effects on the Fill lately:
they pull down the cattails and eat the roots, and they make paths
through the vegetation to open water.

The paths are probably the worst effect because they make people think
that these are paths that are okay to walk on. The net result is that
the paths become wider, as people go off-trail without even realizing
they're off-trail. Furthermore, people tend to make new trails as they
take short-cuts from one trail to another. So gradually, what was wild
and untouched is becoming tramped-down. Even worse, when people see
other people go off-trail, they think it's okay to go off-trail
anywhere. So just in the last week, I've seen whole families of people
walking through fields, picking flowers, splashing in the ponds,
throwing rocks, letting their dogs off-leash to chase the ducks and
harass the rails.

I am particularly worried about two ponds: the southeast and the
southwest ponds. Both ponds are now hosting breeding Virginia rails,
Wilson's Snipe, Red-winged Blackbirds (southeast pond), Pied-billed
Grebes (southwest pond), and I think Sora. Both ponds used to be almost
totally secluded by a surrounding cover of thick cattails and brush.

Now, however, the nutria (and people!) have trampled several paths
leading directly into the ponds. This has encouraged birders,
photographers, little kids, and dog people to walk all over the ponds'
edges.

If this keeps up, I think all the breeding birds in those ponds will
leave.

In my next email, I'll post my plea. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com