John, could you possibly post your photos of the otters and birds online? I'm sure many of us would love to see them.

I have seen the otters before. And they are most certainly master's of staying hidden. Just like those ninja-like coyotes.

When I was a student at UW several years ago, I worked on research regarding the nutria of Union Bay. As much drama as currently surrounds nutria, they don't live up to the hype.

During the nearly year-long project, we collected lots of information on specifically what species the nutria fed on. We put in hundreds, possibly thousands of hours in the field. At the time, the nutria were more prolific. The population has declined somewhat since then and has become less visible. We learned that nutria actually feed largely on the non-natives at the UBNA (or Montlake Fill).

Here is a list of species we observed the nutria feeding on during the project:

- Fragrant Water Lily
- Cattail
- Yellow Iris
- Water smartweed
- Himalayan Blackberry
- Bittersweet nightshade
- Common Rush
- Common Horsetail
- American Brooklime
- Jewelweed
- Narrowleaf Plantain
- Queen Anne's Lace

Of the over 242 times we saw and positively identified the plants being consumed by nutria, the most often consumed plants by far was fragrant water lily (which is a strong invasive in Union Bay). The second most frequently consumed was yellow iris (which is currently being herbicided by the CUH staff).

If you have been reading the articles in the Seattle P-I about nutria, they make nutria sound almost as bad as Godzilla attacking Tokyo! Don't believe everything you read in the press. Sure, nutria are not native but exactly what effect they will have on our local wetlands remains to be seen. So far, they if anything they have indicated a preference for some of the same plants the the CUH has been trying to poison and remove from the UBNA.

Food for thought,



Filip Tkaczyk
Seattle, WA
mailto: pathwithaheart at hotmail.com
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