Hi All,

During a walk along the Sammamish River Trail in Bothell yesterday, my wife
and I spotted a male Hooded Merganser and a male Common Goldeneye swimming
together in the river. They dove together, and if they surfaced far away
from one another they always immediately swam back together. A bicyclist
startled them and they flew side by side about 30 yards upriver and landed
together. They were never more than a few feet apart. It was interesting
because there were plenty of other birds of their respective species for
them to have been flocking with, but they stayed at a distance from their
conspecifics the whole time we watched them. I have uploaded a photo of the
pair to my New Photos Gallery here:
http://www.goatislandimages.com/photogalleries.htm I have also uploaded 7
other miscellaneous bird photos from the last week.

If you?d like to see a few additional photos featuring a variety of bird
(and mammal, amphibian and mollusk) species, they can be viewed in the
latest issue of the Wild Again e-newsletter here:
http://www.paws.org/about/emailnetwork/archive/wildagain/2009_02.html.


Kevin Mack
Edmonds, WA
www.goatislandimages.com