Raccoons have sparked more than a few conversations here on WSB – including the comments on the original post last month with that photoJenny Simonds took in her neighborhood near Lincoln Park — and here’s word of an alert that the Fauntleroy Community Association is issuing: FCA is getting reports of “raccoon latrines” in Fauntleroy — communal spots the critters single out for elimination. They’re a concern not just for the obvious reasons but because what FCA notes is “a parasite called raccoon roundworm … Raccoons excrete roundworm eggs and larvae, and if ingested, the resulting infection can cause severe disease and even death. There is no known cure. Particularly at risk are young children and pets.” Please note, however, this is not cause for hysteria – we looked up the incidence of this disease, and online references say there’ve been 25 cases of “serious roundworm disease” in the U.S. in the past five years. Meantime — FCA leaders say they’ve asked the City Council to “take appropriate action regarding this serious public health issue” but have learned, “As it stands now, there is no department that will offer assistance.” FCA says it’s received the following advice that everyone can follow:
• Don’t feed wildlife because they become dependent on it
• Don’t feed feral cats, which provides a food source for raccoons
• Don’t feed your pets outside except when supervised, then remove bowls and spills
• Prevent raccoons from entering your home through pet doors by securing them
• Feed birds by planting bird-friendly vegetation since bird seed attracts raccoons, and
• Compost wisely because food waste attracts raccoons.
How to tell if there’s a raccoon latrine on your property, and what to do about it? Here’s some info from the King County website. Also note, this topic is likely to come up again at FCA’s monthly meeting tonight — 7 pm, Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, public welcome.
We mentioned this briefly earlier today, but wanted to give it a more prominent shoutout: West Seattle’s Seal Sitters, who keep watch to protect baby seals whose moms leave them on local beaches while off hunting, have another volunteer-training session tomorrow night; we noted a decent turnout for their first one last month, which happened on a weekend afternoon — this time, it’s at night, 7-9 pm tomorrow at Alki Community Center, all welcome. When Janette Wilson from the Seal Sitters called WSB this afternoon to remind us about this, we asked how seal-pup season was going so far, and she admitted they’re “a little worried” — they’ve only responded to one pup sighting, a dramatic difference from last year, when things started getting busy in August. But she also noted that the chum run is yet to arrive, and that may bring some pups, so they want to have a full volunteer corps ready. If you want to find out more before showing up for tomorrow’s session, there’s contact info on the Seal Sitters‘ site.
Jessica wanted people in the area to know, so she sent this tonight:
Just saw a coyote crossing the street, 41st ave SW, a block from Metropolitan Market. Feeling afraid for kitties we spotted out.
Previous West Seattle coyote-sighting reports published on WSB are archived here. ADDED 11:56 PM: In comments on this post, Jenny mentioned a Lincoln Park sighting – she then sent us this photo:
ADDED THURSDAY AFTERNOON: Big Old Daddy sends word of another sighting:
Didn’t think to report this when it happened, but my son and I were at the kitchen table about 9 AM on Tuesday, Sep 2, when he spotted a coyote ambling down the neighbor’s driveway on SW Cloverdale near Fauntleroy Place SW. The coyote strolled up Cloverdale where another neighbor tried to scare it away with some pebbles. Last night yet another neighbor came over to ask if we had seen one of their cats – one who never misses a meal and may have become one. I’m pretty sure this is the same critter we saw lounging in a neighbor’s yard a couple of months ago.
Thanks to Imelda for that photo looking southwest from just south of Alki Point around 6:30 this morning. The latest forecast promises a “mostly sunny” holiday on Monday!ADDED 1:26 PM: Just found out that co-publisher Patrick got this great shot of a great blue heron near Alki Bathhouse this morning, so we wanted to share that too:
So I was taking my dog out to do her business about midnight tonight and was waiting for a while. Then looked across the street and saw something moving in the dark. Looked a little closer and saw that it was a Coyote walking up the sidewalk. Knowing that my 4 lb. Yorkie was no match I quietly whispered for her let’s go. As I hurried up the stairs it took off. I was relieved it was not aggressive. Seemed to be spooked by us. I am located at 41st and Dawson. (map) I had seen the pictures on the blog before and it looked identical. Went back inside to get my camera and waited for a while but he was gone.
Just thought I would share it since I did not think anyone saw them in my neighborhood. But it seemed more scared of me then I was of it. I don’t think he was out to harm anyone. Clearly not hostile.
This post was officially the tipping point … we just went back and created a category for all posts about coyotes (which required adding the label to each previous one) … maybe someday we’ll finally get to that West Seattle coyote map! Find the coyote archive here.
Reporting this somewhat belatedly after Sunday night’s 35th/Dawson crash pre-empted the weekend-wrapup post … The Seal Sitters‘ first training session of the season drew a good turnout (the photo above shows just part of the group; there were a couple more rows of attendees before we left Hiawatha a few minutes after their presentation began). But it’s not too late for you to get involved; September 9 is the next training session, 7-9 pm at Alki Community Center. And even if you don’t become an official volunteer, you can help by remembering what to do – and what not to do – when you see a baby seal; the key thing to remember is “leave it alone” – the Seal Sitters’ site has more specifics.
(December 2007 photo by “H,” shot long-lens from a distance)
We mentioned it when the Seal Sitters announced it a week ago, and since it’s happening tomorrow, here’s a reminder: The first volunteer-training session for the Seal Sitters – who keep watch when baby seals turn up on West Seattle shores, to make sure mom/pup reunions aren’t threatened by people or other animals who get too close – is 3-5 pm tomorrow at Hiawatha Community Center(map). After that, your next chance is 9/9 – but baby-seal season could start at any time, so the Seal Sitters may need you ASAP.
Thanks to Bruce for that photo of what neighbors apparently know as the “local” coyote, which showed up last night in their back yard “just above the ravine in the North Admiral area on the 2100 block of 41st Ave. SW.” (map) His note landed in the WSB inbox right on the heels of a Delridge sighting — Dorothy lives at the sprawling West Ridge Park complex (map) and says she saw a coyote Saturday morning and again this morning. She added, “I’m concerned because many residents here have pets and small children” and wondered where to “report” it. As we’ve discussed here before, aside from this type of report, which we publish as part of the general WSB community info-sharing, there’s really no place to “report” coyotes under normal circumstances – they’re considered just part of the landscape – and just one of many reasons not to let small animals (cats etc.) roam alone (certainly there are many other threats to them) … local wildlife experts have a lot of advice about peaceful coexistence (don’t feed them, etc.) and you can find much of it, with handy links, in this WSB report from earlier this year.
Late summer/early fall is prime time for baby seals on the beaches – that Alki clip above is from WSB’s very early video days last September — and when they show up, the volunteers known as the Seal Sitters spring into action. (And often … here’s proof.) Many people asked us at the time how they could help as official Seal Sitters volunteers, in addition to knowing what to do when you see a seal on the beach (answer, as reinforced on the Seal Sitters’ site: basically, nothing – its mom will likely be back after hunting, and if you get too close, that could jeopardize the reunion). Today, we have word the Seal Sitters are about to have two volunteer-training events, and they hope to see you there:
The West Seattle “Seal Sitters” are regrouping in anticipation of what could soon be dozens of baby seal “pups” gracing our shores. The pups “haul out” to get much-needed rest and warmth by sleeping peacefully on the beaches and rocks, often for long hours before mom returns for them. These pups are extremely vulnerable at this time and need our protection to help them survive; only 50% of harbor seals survive their first year.
Robin Lindsay, a freelance photographer, has been documenting the babies for the past few years. She urges as many West Seattle residents who can to join Seal Sitters, a group of dedicated volunteers who come together to guard the seal pups and educate onlookers on their lives and behavior. “It’s thrilling to watch wide-eyed seal pups grow and develop, and you meet incredible people!”
Seal Sitters will be holding a volunteer training session on Sunday, August 10th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at Hiawatha Community Center (2700 California Ave SW). A second training will be held at Alki Community Center (5817 SW Stevens) on Tuesday, September 9th from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Anyone with an interest in marine mammals is encouraged to attend. Those who complete a training session are eligible to join the Seal Sitters Intern Program.
Seal Sitters have created a website – www.sealsitters.org – that features photos of seal pups, and provides additional information on seals and Seal Sitters. Please check this site for any time and location updates prior to attending.
Thanks to Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography for sharing that view of a watchful harbor seal. Reminds us that we need to check with the Seal Sitters to see how their roster’s shaping up for this season, since birthing season starts in August. If you see a baby seal on the beach, remember — leave it alone and keep your distance; its mom is probably just off looking for food, and human interference with the baby lessens the chance of a family reunion. We published a lot of great pix and video last year, but all from a safe distance, thanks to zoom.
About 9, I was leaving the vet clinic across the street from the [Mural, ex-Petco parking lot] construction crane area and heard a baby eagle SCREAMING! It was perched at the end of the huge yellow crane – no mom in sight. I was so distracted by it as I drove by peering through my open roof that a construction guy yelled down to me to watch where I was driving! When I stopped and told him what I was looking at a few of the other construction guys gave me the impression that the eaglet has been hanging out there. Seems odd, but actually the crane has the same rough configuration of bare snags that eagles like to hunt from. I don’t know if the little guy (not so little actually) will be there again, but maybe folks could keep an eye out for it.
It was a VERY loud baby bird – probably calling on mom, as usual. :)
We suppose photos like that MIGHT bore us someday when coyotes are in residence at all hours in all front yards, back yards, parking spaces … but that’s probably a ways off. At least a week. Vanessa sent the photos a few days back, saying she’d taken them at 46th/Willow (map) a few weeks earlier (believed to be the same coyote shown here). We’d been looking for a timely excuse to run her pix, and got one this morning when another sighting report came in, this time from Pat in Fauntlee Hills:
Late last night my wife and I saw a coyote trotting down 39th Avenue SW near Henderson St. [map] walking south. A good reminder to keep your pets safe!
Does anyone have a good deterrent for raccoons? Obviously, having a water garden with tasty plants and potable water is an attraction, we admit. What we’d like to know is if anyone has had success with the predator pee, or cayenne powder, or other “scentual” deterrents. These photos were taken last night.
(click to see a larger version)
You see them soaring overhead – or sometimes perched in a tree or on a piling – but this is a somewhat unusual view of West Seattle bald eagles, courtesy of Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography. She writes:
I was very excited to watch this eagle family interact on the Duwamish Head end of Alki this morning. While the bird in the foreground is gigantic, it seems to be a half-fledged chick. It was running along the beach on and off for a good half hour, flapping its wings and crying piteously and hopping into the air and crashing back down, while Mom sat on the pontoon with what looks like an older or better-developed sibling and watched. Eventually Mom and sibling came back to the chick. Mom seemed conflicted; the youngster would crouch and flap his wings and peep yearningly at her exactly like a begging sparrow chick, and Mom would move toward him and stretch her head toward him, then jerk away. Eventually Mom flew back to the pontoon and Sibling stayed on the beach with the youngster, huddling with him and grooming him in what looked like a comforting way, and watching while he found some fish and excitedly ate it. Eventually Youngster made it into the air and Mom joined him and the family soared off.
I don’t know much about eagle behavior, but it looks like the chick, which is monstrously huge but a baby nonetheless, is at that stage where the parent starts being impelled to start withdrawing parental care. But everyone in the group looked miserable and conflicted. Do eagles live in multi-age groups? The sleeker young eagle definitely seems better-developed and looks older, but he or she also clearly had a strong bond with the ruffled youngster.
During the usual morning dog walk, we were on Beach Drive headed towards Alki point, just across from the Sewage Treatment Plant when I heard a running sound. Looked down at the beach (tide was out) and a coyote was looking at us as it ran south along the beach.
Pretty exciting to see. Expect to see them up on the hills and in the parks, but not on the beach!
Just before our sudden downtime, this came in from Ann:
My husband and I just witnessed a couple abandoning an iguana near the High Point pond. They were driving a newer compact gray 4 door pickup, license was something like (WA plate that appeared to start with A). We saw them take it out of a styrofoam container and they seemed to be walking it on a leash. Next thing we knew they took off so we went over to investigate and sure enough, it was climbing the hillside just east of the pond. We called Animal Control but they were closed. Then called the Seattle Police non-emergency number and they told us they couldn’t do anything. We flagged down an officer patroling the neighborhood and she told us that she was sorry, but that there was nothing she could do. I’ll call AC again in the morning to see if they can come look for it. Just doesn’t seem right to abandon an animal that surely is going to die in our cold weather as well as put our neighborhood kids at risk of possible danger, in broad daylight and get away with it.
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
Just before the site’s semi-surprise outage, we happened to be out checking out another fire call that didn’t turn out to be news. On the way back, headed up the hill from Lincoln Park – didn’t catch whether this was Thistle or Rose St. – we spotted a coyote poking around a house, pulled over, and whipped out the camera to capture the above-viewable video — low quality but kind of interesting just to watch the way the critter moves. (And the frames where it passes by the fake duck.)
6:30 am Sunday. We live in the ravine above Salty’s, up near Walnut in North Admiral. We’ve been hearing three coyote pups and mom at night … now they have been waltzing around our deck in the mornings! The pups look healthy, well fed and are bold. Watch your pets!
Then this afternoon, JC sent this:
Not sure that this is particularly newsworthy, but it certainly made my jaw drop: I was just driving up the north end of California Avenue, coming up from Harbor Drive at 2:43 pm. A little more than halfway up the hill, I had to stop for an otter which was loping across the road towards bay side of the street. There was a white pick-up truck coming down the hill who also had to stop. The driver and I exchanged astonished shrugs as the otter disappeared into the bushes.
In the previous reader-report wildlife post (which coincidentally mentioned coyotes and an otter), we noted you’ve got a chance tomorrow night to hear various experts talk about “coexistence with coyotes,” though you’ll have to go to Rainier Beach to do it. ADDED EARLY TUESDAY: Maybe you’ll see City Councilmember Sally Clark there. One of the newer entries to her official blog mentions her first-ever coyote sighting (she lives near Seward Park).
(Photo of the one and only coyote sighted so far near WSB HQ, from April 2007)
It’s been a while since anyone’s e-mailed about coyote sightings. In the past 24-ish hours, though, we’ve received word of two, and that also provides a reason for a reminder about the citywide “coexisting with coyotes” forum next week. First, the sightings. Dale reports one early Friday morning “on the hill over Thriftway“:
They looked comfortable and well-fed, and our cat came home later. So all is good. They seem to like our pond. We’re a few blocks north of 39th SW ravine, (6700 block of 39th SW; map), and have a heavily wooded yard, as do our neighbors. Main point of the post is to let people with outdoor cats know, so they can respond accordingly.
Then from northern West Seattle, Burkee-mailed tonight: “Just met a coyote racing across the lower end of Fairmount. Looked like he had been pretty well spooked by something.” (Burke also mentioned seeing “the otter that finds it convenient to poop in the swimming pool at Harbor Park Condo. Just saw him ‘loping’ across the parking lot concealing himself under the parked cars as he went.”) Now, about that “coexistence” forum with info helpful for anyone in Seattle: It’s planned for Tuesday night at the Pritchard Beach Bathhouse in Rainier Beach (city news release here; map here). We covered the last one, in February in Magnolia (WSB article here).
Just out of the inbox from an e-mail list kept by local naturalist Stewart Wechsler, who leads independent activities as well as some like this in collaboration with the Parks Department. (We once joined in an Owl Hoot at Seward Park but are betting Camp Long is even more splendid!):
There are currently still 12 spaces for my Owl Hoot tonight (Sat. 7-5-08) at Camp Long in West Seattle this evening 8:30 – 10:30 pm with the Seattle Parks Department. Barred Owls are resident at Camp Long and there is a good chance of seeing and hearing them.
I haven’t seen juveniles, but we may discover some vocal hissing juveniles begging for food if, as might be expected there is whole family there again. We will also dissect some owl pellets. The program is appropriate for whole families with all ages and individuals.
That’s just one example of a city chicken coop – and we’re showing it to you to accompany Seattle Tilth‘s announcement that its “City Chickens Tour” (first mentioned here) is definitely a go for July 12, and will feature West Seattle chicken coops too. Tickets (maps for the self-guided tour) are available through the Seattle Tilth website. Now, a bird of a different feather:
That’s video of a peregrine falcon — and its handler — from Woodland Park Zoo’s SOAR program, visiting the Delridge Library tonight for a program that kept a sizable all-ages audience, well, enrapt. (In the clip, you hear an explanation of how the DDT ban decades ago helped save endangered peregrines – among other birds – by reducing use of the chemical that had thinned their eggshells.) West Seattle’s library branches have programs from story time to games and beyond, all summer long; use this map to browse the branches and their online calendars.
Thanks to Alki resident Marge Carpenter for sending photos — she and husband Larry were on the same Water Taxi run from downtown yesterday afternoon, but we didn’t see them till after getting on the boat, and didn’t know they’d caught the otters (mentioned here last night) on cam. Sorry we don’t have zoom processing; they were indeed that different in size, maybe parent and child?
We mentioned this briefly earlier today, but wanted to give it a more prominent shoutout: West Seattle’s Seal Sitters, who keep watch to protect baby seals whose moms leave them on local beaches while off hunting, have another volunteer-training session tomorrow night; 
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