At dusk on May 8, 2008, my wife and I saw a mature river otter hauled
out on the "turtle" log off the NW shore of Green Lake. It went into
the water, caught a large carp, returning to the log. Seeing several
people on shore watching, it went into the water and went elsewhere to
eat the carp. The next morning I phone the zoo to see if they were
missing an otter. They said no. WDFW had no reports of otter in Green
Lake but thought it possible. There were other observations of an otter
over several days, then it was gone. Earlier this spring the otter was
reported again. About two weeks ago, there were several reliable
observations of an otter. There are otters in Union Bay. The question
at hand is how do they get to Green Lake for their visits? Up Ravenna
Creek from Union Bay, thence the Green Lake drain to the lake? Thumbing
a ride up Stone Way.? The mystery remains. Otters are good travelers,
but one does not think of them moving along city streets.

As to the grebes in Green Lake. This year there seems to be only a
single pair nesting on the western shore of "Duck" Bay. Their first
nest was washed away in mid May before any eggs were laid. The second
nest fledge a single chick who is still around. The third nest is about
to hatch chicks, we hope. (Last year the same pair had four sequential
nests, and the last batch of chicks left the last nest on the 4th of
October.)

We have found only a single pair nesting on Green Lake this year. Last
year we located three other nests and thought there were three or four
nesting pairs. Two nests in bull rushes one on the NE shore and one on
the S shore lasted only several days). A nest on the W shore, south of
the turtle log fledge young. We thought there probably was a pair
nesting in the thick willows on the southern shore but never located a
nest. Martin Muller may add to my comments. He would report many more
nesting pairs on the lake in the past. Why the recent decline? More
people, more dogs into the water, more fisherman at the waters edge,
less peripheral vegetation around the shore. The Parks Department has
been "cleaning up" the shoreline vegetation, including removing the
blackberry and mowing closer to the water. The blackberry provided a
good visual and physical screen for the water lilies next to the shore.
Mowing out the blackberry adjacent to the small patch of cattails near
the turtle logs clearly led to the loss of the nesting blackbirds on the
lake.

Green Lake is a great regional park and receives intensive use by many
different kinds of users. Unfortunately, this may result in its decline
as wildlife habitat.

We have enjoyed Fiona's pictures of the grebe nests.

Richard Fleming on Winona Av next to Green Lake
206-525-1974