Dragonfly and River Otters at Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Photos of a dragonfly and curious river otters at McFadden Marsh in Finley National Wildlife Refuge. Thank you to photographer Steve Reed from Albany for sharing these photos! Find a fun river otter photo gallary at www.otternet.com/ROA/PhotoGallery.htm

Otters abound!

So, you've been getting out there and seeing otters. As our friend Elvira would say, nice work people! The group of 6 river otters has been seen multiple times out in the Amazon creek just south of the tracks both in the morning and around noon. Other recent happenings include new turtle logs being placed in the Amazon creek. These are basking structures created by us humans for our Western Pond Turtle friends to sun themselves on. There will be some in the creek south of Checkermallow Access by next week. Check them out with the viewing scope that is installed on the bike path. There is also a new turtle log near by the WREN educational yurt, just west of Danebo in the creek. Other critters to watch for - shore birds are moving through our area again for their fall migration, and we'll be seeing neotropical migrants (warblers and swallows) around mid-September. Let us know what you've seen or ask questions about your sightings by leaving a comment or emailing us at info@wewetlands.org!

Otters among us

River otters have been sighted again very recently out here in the West Eugene Wetlands. One of the WREN volunteers, Richard Hand, saw 5 river otters twice within the last two weeks! Once just south of the train tracks along the Amazon bike path, and then out by the bridge at Royal Ave. I saw 6! in the Amazon Creek just last Saturday, like Richard, south of the train tracks on the bike path. It is such a fun experience to watch these creatures in action. They are very social animals, meaning they are often found in a group. Some other quick ways to distinguish them from nutria at a distance are by their tails, their noses and their swimming patterns. Otters are quite graceful and playful, and will roll in the water as they swim. I have included a photo from Judy Berg to give you a mental picture of the critters to look for. So get out here, walk the wetlands and see if you can spot the otters, too. Good luck!

An Inspiring Ride

After starting the day seeing an otter in the creek, my day ended with an amazing bike ride out to Meadowlark Prairie. The highlight was a western pond turtle basking on a log in the creek, just south of where the bike path crosses the railroad tracks. And so many birds singing this time of year! I got great close-up views of western meadowlarks, killdeer, red-winged blackbirds, wigeon and green-winged teal, in addition to the usual herons, mallards and Canada geese flying overhead. Pheasants were calling from all directions, and special appearances were made by a pied-billed grebe, a kestrel and a northern harrier being chased by a crow.

There were also lots of folks using the path for everything from roller-blading to bike rides with babies. How lucky we are to live in a community filled with people who can appreciate the beauty of our native landscape!

First Otter of the Year!

This morning around 8:30 as Holly and I were riding our bikes to work we noticed some strange movement under the surface of Amazon Creek. We were on the Fern Ridge Bike Path crossing underneath W. 11th. We knew immediately that it wasn't just another nutria-whatever it was was fully submerged and swimming away from us, upstream. We followed it upstream until it poked its head out of the water...sure enough it was a river otter! Charlie Quinn, who works for The Nature Conservancy, happened to be riding by and joined us as we watched for another glimpse. Otters are smart, and pretty skittish, so once it saw and heard us it was reluctant to show its head again. But we waited it out and sure enough got another couple quick glances.

As we had to get to work, we continued downstream, where the otter was now headed. We eventually got far ahead of it, but looked back in time to see several mallards fly quickly out of the creek corridor-no doubt alarmed by the predator heading their way.

Several folks from WREN were seeing otters regularly last summer and fall, but this was the first sighting in several months! What a great way to start the day!