This morning started quietly enough. I stood at the bridge and saw a sneaky beaver mudding the new apartment, and the usual green heron on the dam. Jon kayak-cleaned the creek yesterday so I was eager to see how bright and shiny it looked. The craggy lump under the Marina Vista bridge turned out to be a night heron, and after he flew overhead I started to get the feeling that someone was watching me.
I thought it was the little beaver, peering out from the blackberry bushes and going from side to side above the footbridge. Then it crossed the secondary dam and I realized it wasn’t a beaver at all, but in fact two otters, obviously a mom and a pup, making their way around the creek.
Otters stick their heads out of the water so far when they swim. What are they looking for? While I was putting the events together in my mind, another night heron flew over. Followed by three green herons who paused to eat at the footbridge for a while.
Then a king fisher dove from under the Marina Vista bridge, while a croaking great egret made a grand show of landing beside it. At one point I counted 5 green herons. I knew why I was there. Why were they? Obviously some kind of delicious little fish is making an appearance, mating or spawning or migrating. We didn’t see anything large, but the birds and otters knew what they were doing here. Clearly only one soundtrack is fitting for this morning’s adventure, which I highly recommend:
