Hi Tweets!

Jeff's post convinced me I needed to share some photos from yesterday
when I paddled the Sammamish Slough beside Marymoor Park at around 6
pm. I was watching a female Common Merganser when I saw what I
thought was a little Otter head poke up through the water just below
the weir. Turned out to be a Weasel. You can see photos on my blog at
http://www.SongbirdPhoto.com.

Happy birding--birds & otherwise,

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
tweeters "at" dartfrogmedia "dot" com
www.SongbirdPhoto.com



At 08:17 AM 8/6/2013, you wrote:
>Today, driving down the Lowell-Snohomish River Road (River Road to
>most locals ) I was charmed to see a Long-tailed Weasel win the game
>of Road Roulette as it bounded across the road, tail held high,
>right between my truck and an oncoming car. Just in the past month
>I've seen two of 'em pancaked on the same road, which I travel often
>at times. Last year I gathered one off the road and took it into
>show-and-tell at the Anchor Pub which was an interesting behavioral
>anthropology lesson: some people can handle seeing a dead creature,
>and some people really can't. It really was quite interesting and
>beautiful even though dead. At least some of us thought so.
>
>This is a wonderful mammal to observe, and I've seen them from near
>sea-level, on Everett's Smith Island, ( where I observed one
>apparently after a Common Yellowthoat's nest, the parent bird was
>doing some frenzied decoy manuvers to lead the weasel around. I
>don't know how it turned out), on up to about 6000 ft on the famed
>'Ptarmigan Traverse' just above Cascade Pass in the North Cascades.
>In that case the weasel was giving chase to several Ptarmigan in a
>talus field. It reminded me of that old ditty 'pop goes the
>weasel', as the weasel popped up in one spot, dissapeared under the
>rocks and 'pop'!, came up in another spot. The Ptarmigan cleared
>that scene finally. So weasels are interested in birds, just like
>you or me, if you like to eat birds and eggs that is.
>
>I think it interesting that I've seen more of these weasels in the
>Snohomish County, lowlands, than in any other place I've ever lived,
>including some wilder, or equally rural areas. Just lucky I guess.
>
>It did get me thinking about Roadkills, which sort of substitute as
>a trapline for lazy naturalist's like me. You know, by seeing what's
>dead on the road (DOR) you can get an idea of what's lurking out
>there in the habitat. One roadcake I haven't seen for years is a
>skunk. Maybe I don't get far enough in the boonies for that. Maybe
>skunks are getting smarter - I hope so, I think skunks are cool.
>
>Jeff Gibson
>in Weasel-world
>Everett Wa
>
>P.S. That old tune 'pop goes the weasel' is based quite a bit on
>Cockney slang apparently, and has nothing to do with weasels like we
>see bounding about.
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