Variety and abundance of Sammamish River wildlife

Male common goldeneye dining on a lamprey / credit Reinke, 3/25/2018

This afternoon between 3:38 pm and 4:07 pm I walked from the Opportunity Bldg down to the Leary Way Bridge and back, along the Sammamish River Trail.  I only had my small camera with me and didn't take any photos.

On the way south, I saw some buffleheads and common goldeneyes in the river.  When heading back north, I counted 4 male and 2 female common goldeneyes.  

I also counted one male and 2 female  buffleheads.  Birdweb.org states that buffleheads are the smallest diving duck in Washington state, and I did indeed observe that they were noticeably smaller than the common goldeneyes.

The most interesting wildlife I saw were four river otters swimming north in the river.  I spotted them about a hundred yards north of the Leary Way Bridge, up very close to my side of the river.  They were rapidly heading north, and a pleasure to watch.  All appeared to be large and the same size.

As they approached, the common goldeneyes all took flight and headed south down the river, over the heads of the otters.  Next, the buffleheads did the same thing as the otters started to get close to them.  (The two groups of birds were separated by maybe 25 yards.)

As I got back to the parking lot on the south side of the Opportunity Bldg, I observed a great blue heron fly northward well above the river.  It squawked loudly, once it saw the bald eagle perched up by the nest on the opposite side of the river.

-- John Reinke

   Redmond resident

   12/6