West Seattle Blog…

West Seattle coyotes: Pup photos, and a map

Kimberly shared photos this afternoon of three coyote pups “playing in the landscaping in the back of our community.” That’s the City Lights Condos on Harbor Avenue SW (map).

These are the first coyote photos we’ve received in a long time; we’ve been planning to relaunch our coyote-report coverage with an extra element:

The markers on that map represent every coyote sighting published on WSB in the past five years – including the ones that came up in the comment section. WSB contributor Katie Meyer went through every story in our coyote-report archive, and the comments, to make the map. We intend to keep adding to it, and this one from Kimberly will be added soon. As the coyote reports have come in over the years, someone would suggest every now and then that we make a map, so there would be more of an overview look to underscore the point that they have been seen just about everywhere in West Seattle (not just near greenbelts), and here it is. Updates to come.

From the ‘what’s that wildlife?’ file: Leaping fish off Alki

Tom Wyrick from Alki Arts caught those jumping silver fish on cameraphone video this evening and is wondering what they are. We have googled like crazy (and checked WSB archives) and we don’t know either. Do you?

West Seattle Whale Watch: Return of the orcas!

4:29 PM: First we got a tweet about orcas off Alki Point – now we’re told they’re off Lowman Beach and there’s a TV chopper over them. Let us know if you see them! (The rain’s moving back in, which presents a visibility challenge …)

5:49 PM: We spent some time south of Brace Point hoping they’d come by. No luck. Bill e-mailed from the Lincoln Park shoreline an hour or so ago that they appeared to be heading further offshore.

Followup: Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft afloat again – with addition

Over the past few years, we’ve brought you Guy Smith‘s updates on the saga of the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft, named after his wife and (usually) floating within view of their Alki home. The latest chapter a month ago involved the raft getting away, and being rescued with the help of a cast including even Husky Deli proprietor Jack Miller, via boat (photo included in our report). Today, Guy sends word that the raft is afloat again – with something extra (see the left side of the photo above):

As of Mother’s Day, Joy’s raft is out of dry dock and back on its buoy and rebuilt anchor line off Alki Pt. The time in dry dock gave the opportunity to add a modification that might prove useful. Last fall we noticed a seal pup trying for a long time to get on the raft, but it was just too weak and gave up. So in case that happens again, the raft now has a swim step. Could a small pool slide be next?

Maybe the sand-rolling Alki otter will be interested …

West Seattle wildlife: This otter’s on a roll

Thanks to Russ Walker for video and photos of a river otter that’s spending a lot of time out of the water at Alki – bet you haven’t seen one take a “sand bath.” (Well, WE haven’t.) Russ notes that the otter’s been crossing Alki Avenue SW, “right around the blue bottle house” – no pic of that, but here’s a pose on the beach:

And yes, what you see in West Seattle are river otters, NOT sea otters like the ones at the Seattle Aquarium. Find out all sorts of fascinating river-otter facts here.

West Seattle wildlife: Honeybee-swarmed neighborhood

Yes, we count bees (and other insects/etc.) as wildlife too. So here’s an unusual sight, shared by Ute Herzel-Harding, whose block (3600 block of 46th SW, Genesee area) has drawn five honeybee swarms in three days – including the one shown above, with the honeybees almost appearing to be part of the hanging planter, which is what inspired Ute to share the photos (thanks!). Ute’s husband Mike Harding is a beekeeper and gathered them up for a new home:

The planter swarm turned up on Friday. Then on Saturday, another swarm on what Ute says otherwise was “a rather flimsy ash-tree branch”:

Here’s Mike:

(If you find a bee swarm, the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association website usually displays a list of who to call – we’ve tried it in multiple browsers and it’s not displaying for us – perhaps a bee-savvy WSB’er knows what’s up?)

West Seattle wildlife: Fauntleroy Creek salmon releases’ midpoint

Students from Fauntleroy’s Little Pilgrim School are the latest to release salmon fry into Fauntleroy Creek, where volunteer Dennis Hinton says about 1,000 of the little coho have been released since May 1st (we covered the season’s first student release that day, with Westside School (WSB sponsor) visiting – here’s the story). Dennis reports that about 260 students have been to the creek for releases so far, and there will be more through the end of the month:

The program is coordinated by volunteer creek stewards. Most of these fry have been raised in the classrooms since January. Creek stewards have also been monitoring the number of coho smolt. These are fish the kids released in the creek last May, have survived for about a year, and are now headed downstream to the saltwater. As of today
115 smolt had been counted. The smolt count will also wind up May 30.

Here’s a look at some of those smolt:

After a year in the creek, Dennis says, they are generally three to five inches long. In the fall, volunteers watch again for returning fish; you can find out more about Fauntleroy Creek here.

Want to be a Seal Sitter? RSVP for last pre-season volunteer training

There’s been no offseason for Seal Sitters this year – which means the volunteer marine-mammal protectors/educators/admirers have been wildly busy. If you’ve thought about joining them, here’s your last chance before things get REALLY busy again. From Robin Lindsey:

Seal Sitters MMSN will hold our final new volunteer training session on Saturday, May 19th at the Alki Bathhouse (2701 Alki Ave SW next to the Statue of Liberty). There will be a lecture/AV presentation from 10am-12. Following a 30-minute break, there will be a followup on-the-beach training lasting approximately an hour. Due to time constraints as pupping season arrives, we will not be able to hold another training until after the season ends. We hope to see folks who want to help protect marine mammals attend the training – and please rsvp to reserve a spot:

blubberblog.org/files/f1e2561025a2bc8063238a9180e25086-368.html

We encourage children to get involved in this empowering experience! Shown in the photo here is new volunteer 10-year-old Casey with her mom Dana and veteran volunteer Christine, looking after a pup at Lincoln Park.

West Seattle weekend scenes: Seeing the sights @ low tide

Thanks to Greg for sharing photos from south of Alki during this morning’s low tide (even lower the next two afternoons). Above, his daughter Lillie carefully checks out a purple sea star. Next, a great blue heron snags a snack:

And of course, Lillie, Greg, and the heron did not exactly have the beach to themselves:

While the very low (and very high!) tides continue for the next few days, the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar will have information about both the tides and opportunities to talk with beach naturalists. We also have tide information on the WSB Weather page year-round.

West Seattle wildlife: Mystery of ‘sea lion with a number’ solved

A week and a half ago, we published that photo taken by Tom Foley while out on the Duwamish River. We thought it was a Steller sea lion; turns out it’s a California sea lion – and known to researchers. LG saw Tom’s photo here and sent the information to NOAA, which she says “got excited about it, and e-mails were quickly sent around between people at NOAA and the Alaska Fish and Game Department’s Steller Sea Lion program trying to identify the animal. Apparently Alaska Fish and Game has an extensive photo database specifically for identifying branded sea lions.” She then received e-mail from NOAA’s Sharon Melin, who told her it was OK for us to publish the e-mail, which follows:

Thank you for reporting the sighting of the California sea lion #8727. He was branded as a 4 month old pup in September 2006 at San Miguel Island, California. At the time, he weighed 23.0 kg and was large for his age. He has been seen regularly in Washington during the winters and at San Miguel Island during the summer breeding season but still is too young and small to be breeding.

San Miguel Island is the northern limit of the California sea lion breeding range and is the westernmost island in the Channel Islands chain off the coast of California. Each year, a population of about 100,000 California sea lions returns to the island to breed and pup. Pups are born in late May and June and are usually weaned in March or April of the following year. Each year we tag and brand 500 pups out of about 23,000 born and conduct long-term observation studies throughout the lives of tagged individuals.

The tagging program for seals and sea lions on San Miguel Island was initiated in 1975. We have had tag recoveries from as far south as Pta Colnette (Punta Colonet), Mexico and as far north as Southeast Alaska. The tagging program provides information for long-term studies on migration, movements, survival, reproductive success, and annual cycles of individual animals. Studies such as these help us to effectively monitor marine mammal populations.

Tag returns are an extremely important part of our studies and they provide valuable information required to understand the biology and status of marine mammal populations. Thank you for taking time to participate in our research effort.

Here’s a map showing San Miguel Island, which is off Santa Barbara, California – more than 1,000 miles away!

West Seattle wildlife: School-salmon release season begins

In Fauntleroy Park this morning, Westside School (WSB sponsor) second-graders were the first to visit Fauntleroy Creek this spring to release salmon fry they’ve been raising. The students arrived in vans; the salmon, in a bucket:

Another bucket nearby held a few of the smolt that had been released into the creek a year earlier; watershed steward Judy Pickens explained that they have been transporting smolt downstream that way because last year, so many of them died somewhere between the park and the fish ladder near Fauntleroy Cove. She joined teacher Laura Holmes (center) for a briefing at the park’s north-central entrance before everyone headed down to the creek:

Judy was presented with student art and poetry about the fish, and read the poems aloud before they were tacked up in the kiosk nearby:

Back to that first fish – as was the case with each student in turn, the boy in the black/white hat was instructed to hold his hand over the cup once volunteer Dennis Hinton had scooped up a fry to set free – then to carefully empty the cup into the creek, by a small footbridge a short walk from SW Barton … and then, off went the fry:

Each spring, Judy, Dennis, and other volunteers watch for smolt heading outbound – this spring, 105 so far – and then each fall, they watch for salmon returning home after about 3 years away.

West Seattle wildlife: Giant Pacific Octopus, close up

You never know what you are going to find on the beach at low tide. This closeup look at an octopus arm found south of Alki Point a few days ago is courtesy of West Seattle photographer Machel Spence. She even found the upper mandible of its beak – the only hard part of an octopus’s body:

Probably not the same octopus – but two weeks ago, Jana and her kids found an intact octopus on a local beach; we’d been saving those photos – click ahead if you’re interested in seeing one: Click to read the rest of West Seattle wildlife: Giant Pacific Octopus, close up…

West Seattle wildlife: ‘Common’ yet uncommon bird sighting

Shared by Alki photographer David Hutchinson, who says, “My wife and I came across this Common Loon in Elliott Bay while walking near Salty’s this evening.” (The bird may be deemed “common” by name, but its beauty is anything but!)

West Seattle wildlife: The sea lion with a number

(Click image to see it in a larger size)
Sharing that photo (and others) taken during a Puget Soundkeeper trip along the Duwamish River, West Seattle volunteer Tom Foley wondered, “Does anyone out there know who might have numbered the animal and if they would like to know it has shown up here in Elliott Bay?” A bit of online research reveals Steller sea lions – the species we believe this to be – have been widely branded along the North Pacific so that sightings can be tracked; Stellers are on the endangered-species list. Can’t tell from this number, though, who might have placed it there…

West Seattle wildlife: Surprise sighting, and bonus photo

From Danny McMillin:

I’ve never seen a Eurasian Collared-Dove until this morning. I spotted a pair while photographing an eagle on Alki Point. I’m curious to know if anyone else has seen these doves in West Seattle; and if so, where and when.

As a bonus, Danny included the eagle (pursued by a crow):

West Seattle wildlife: Bird with a view

No one can resist the downtown-skyline view from West Seattle – not even the noble and ever-busy crow. Thanks to Darren Pilon for sharing the photo. P.S. While rain is on its way back, the forecast includes some weekend sun.

West Seattle Whale Watch: Orcas make a splash!

Thanks to Gary Jones for sharing photos of the orcas that put on a show between Alki Point and Bainbridge Island late this morning!

We heard about it via Facebook, went down to the water to see if we could see them, and no luck (again), so Gary’s photos are much appreciated. Expert watchers say all this leaping is because they’re feeding.

We also got a call from a nice person who said he could see them via telescope from his home over Beach Drive (and offered us the chance to use it), but at the time – 12:30ish – they were “way on the other side.”

According to the Orca Network‘s latest Facebook update, these are likely “transients” – orcas that eat mammals (seals, sea lions, whales) instead of fish, which is the staple of Puget Sound’s resident orcas.

West Seattle beauty: Sights above and beneath the sea

Before we get going all-out with a brand-new day – and Tax Day, at that! – take a moment for two seagoing West Seattle sights shared by WSB’ers. First, John Hinkey‘s view of the Monday night sunset. Next, the latest undersea video from diver/photographer Laura James – who lets her camera linger on market-squid eggs on the seafloor near Seacrest:

The eggs take just past two months to hatch, according to this squid-info page. (Yes, same squid that appears on menus as calamari.)

It takes a village … to rescue a West Seattle wildlife raft

(August 2010 photo by Guy Smith)
Another chapter to share in the ongoing saga of Alki’s Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft, first launched in 2008, first mentioned here when we heard from Joy’s husband Guy Smith in 2009, and the subject of some memorable stories since then. Today, Guy shared another one:

Joy’s raft is in dry dock again after an underwater line broke. That’s nothing new, but the way the raft was rescued is quite a story.

We discovered it had broken loose in the late afternoon on Thursday the 12th and located it drifting along about halfway to Duwamish Head. There wasn’t enough daylight left to get a boat and pull it home, so we crossed our fingers and went to dinner with friends. They volunteered to look for it the next day in their boat, but when we got back home at dusk we couldn’t believe our eyes. The raft was tied to a buoy about halfway between the point and the Alki Promenade. How could this have happened?

As near as we can tell, from listening to all the neighbors’ stories and a little guesswork, the raft and buoy were drifting toward Alki Point at about 7:30 pm, on the strong incoming tide when a neighbor, Zack Singer, jumped into his kayak and set out to rescue it. Zack said he was spurred to action when he, Judy, and Linda were sipping cool ones on the patio and Judy said something like “we can’t let that raft get away; we like watching it too much.”

Zack hooked up to the raft and buoy, but the current was too strong and he found himself being pulled south around the point. Luckily, Jack Miller was heading north in his big boat, the “Baltic Sea,” and responded to Zack’s hail.

(Photo by Kyle Udo, added Tuesday morning, courtesy Kyle’s dad Pat Hogan)
Jack hooked up to what he laughingly described as “a pretty unusual sight” and pulled the whole thing around the Point to the first buoy they came to; one of only 3 left on this stretch of beach where a dozen used to be. Zack said it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride; because when Jack took off, the kayak was being pulled backward. Afraid it would flip, he whipped out his knife and cut the kayak loose (instincts from working on tug boats), nicking his finger in the process.

At the new buoy, rope was needed; so Zack paddled to the beach and borrowed a length from Duff Kennedy’s seemingly endless supply. Jack donated a throw-ring float from the Baltic Sea to keep the lines from sinking and tangling. All this action was watched by neighbors on the beach as they shouted encouragement and advice (happy hour was running late that day).

On Saturday, Jerett Kaplan donated his rowboat for retrieving the raft; and it now sits in dry dock, awaiting new parts and a call to the diver. It’s been a nice marine refuge and people along the beach like to watch the birds and seals. Penny Earnest is a Seal Sitter volunteer and sends in daily seal counts. Thanks go to other neighbors who keep watch on the raft and who helped fill in details – Bette Callan, the Hogans, the Warrens, and others; even the unknown owner of the buoy where the raft was temporarily tied. The biggest thanks go to Zack and Jack for their timely action.

Sharon Kennedy related that on Friday, she had watched a mother seal and her pup circle the spot where the raft normally floats; circling for quite a while before they gave up and left. She laughed when she told that she had almost started yelling and pointing to the new location.

West Seattle Whale Watch: Did we mention, more orcas?

On the WSB Facebook page, we shared the Orca Network‘s report of orcas between north Vashon Island and West Seattle, closer to the Vashon side, but hadn’t heard any other reports – till FB commenters confirmed the sighting. They’re reported to be southbound past south West Seattle (but of course that means they’ll eventually have to head back this way).

West Seattle wildlife: Keeping the ‘kids’ in line; takeoff time

(First 2 photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Walking at Don Armeni this morning, we stopped to watch one of the local Canada goose families as they headed up the ramp and off to truly greener pastures park lawns. We can’t even approach the cuteness factor of David Hutchinson’s last parent-and-gosling photo, but we snapped away bravely just the same.

Then, just as we were about to publish those two photos, Cheryl Nellis shared low-tide sights via Facebook – including this view of a great blue heron taking wing as brant munch eelgrass in the foreground:

(Thanks to Cheryl and the other great local photographers who share images – wildlife and otherwise – via WSB!)

West Seattle wildlife: ‘Easter seal’ pup ‘Bunny,’ and a followup about ‘Sandy’

Yes, West Seattle had an “Easter seal” today (By the way, the original Easter Seals are still around.) Jen sent us the top photo of a pup on Alki this morning, watched over by Seal Sitters, whose Robin Lindsey told us tonight they nicknamed “Bunny” – because it kept popping up all over the place! Robin shared a photo too:

Robin also calls our attention to a story published tonight by our partners at the Seattle Times, following up on a sad story she broke last week – also reported here last Monday – the death of the rehabilitated pup “Sandy,” found tangled in old fishing gear in Edmonds. The Times story quotes a conservation group as saying more than half a million sea creatures are killed by lost/abandoned gear every year.

West Seattle Whale Watch: Orcas heading this way

2:20 PM: Got a call about southbound orcas that – if they don’t change their direction – might soon be visible off Alki Point. We’re heading off to look; let us know if you see them.

3:59 PM UPDATE: We didn’t have any luck ourselves (as usual) – but maybe we were too early, as they are still out there, according to those discussing it on the WSB Facebook page.