Are you seeing diminished numbers of water birds? We live on Long Lake just outside Lacey, and while we have a lot of Mallards, the numbers of other wintering birds are waaaay down. For instance, I see perhaps 20 Coots on the lake, whereas in previous years we've had 150-200. I went by Capitol Lake in Olympia in preparation for a bird walk I'm doing there Saturday morning, and the numbers are astonishingly low. There's usually a huge gathering of American Wigeons at the south end of the lake, and there were hardly any yesterday. The mixed flocks of diving ducks are much thinner than usual. I know humans are destroying the world's ecosystems, but if these numbers are an indication of how badly we're doing it, we're in far greater trouble than I had thought.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu <mailto:guttmanb at evergreen.edu>
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503