Wildlife Sightings - 2/5/08

Four Illahee wildlife sightings to report.

Ravens. In the past few years ravens have visited and resided in and near the Illahee Preserve. They and their unique call were absent for awhile in some areas of Illahee, but they are still around as confirmed by residents living near the Preserve.

The Morning Seal & Cormorant Ritual. Every morning a float north of the Illahee community dock transitions from being a resting place for about 20 seals to approximately 70 cormorants. Early in the season if the seals lingered on the float too long the cormorants would do fly overs and swim around the float as if trying to tell the seals it was time for them to leave. Lately the cormorants have become much more bold and are landing on the float while the seals are still there. As more and more of the cormorants get on the dock the seals finally give up possession. The ritual is repeated morning after morning.

White-Winged Scoters. Some of the most colorful sea ducks are the Scoters, especially the Surf Scoter, which is often seen in our area during the winter season. A small flock of White-Winged Scoters have been observed recently in Illahee. They are identified by a small patch of white on their wings. The male has the large orange bill and a small white patch under the eye. The female has a black bill and an almost obscure light patch on its head. They are deep divers and eat crustaceans, mussels, and clams. They have exceptionally strong gizzards that are able to break down hard shell invertebrates into digestible matter.

River Otter or Possibly a Fisher? One of our residents is trying to identify an animal spotted mid afternoon in January, near the blackberry patch across from 5287 - 5303 Illahee Rd. It appeared that the critter was about 24 to 30 inches long with a 8 to 10 inch long bushy tail. Both body and tail had long black fur. His search of look alikes (possible suspects) has him wondering if it could be a Fisher, "Mantes pennanti" of the family Mustelida. While both the River Otter and the Fisher are of the same family and are of similar shape and size the otter has long whiskers and none were observed. Good views of the Fisher can be seen on the following web site:
http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/fisher.html
Let us know if anyone else has seen this animal and can help us with an identification?

Updated website. Just a reminder that we are daily adding new items to our website which is illaheecommunity.com and these updates appear on our blog site which is illaheecommunity.blogspot.com so any response you have can be readily seen by others. If you have any questions on how to use it, please let us know.

Jim Aho