Animals Seen In Or Near Water

These Harbour Seals were seen many times along these rocky hills with their babies, but not in large groups. Harbor Seals and Sea Lions are common along the Puget Sound Ocean and often seen in large groups. Aquatic Garter Snakes spend their live in water searching for small fish and baby amphibians for food. Turkey Vultures are common in the PNW in summer weather. They migrate south in the cold weather. Unlike most other birds Turkey Vultures have a sense of smell. And this helps them find dead animals of all kinds that they like to eat. The last one I saw was eating a dead opossum alongside a rode.

There are times while sailing or walking along water you do not see any animals but there are times when you do, and I got lucky the last couple of weeks, so I want to share these photos with you. Thanks to my brother taking me for a trip from Washington Lake to the Puget Sound Ocean I got to see a lot of Harbour Seals in a different way. They are common in Puget Sound but I have normally seen them only when low tides bring up something for them to gather on. Later, while walking along the river in Leavenworth I saw a snake I had not seen in that river before. Garter snakes are seen a lot but usually not swimming in water, but this species, Aquatic Garter Snake, dose live in water. After that my wife and I walked along a trail we do many times. Over and over we have seen bald eagles there along that Puyallup Rive Trail, but this time we saw a Turkey Vulture.

Reverences:

Whelks and Whales – by Rick M. Harbo

Reptiles of the Northwest – by Alan St. John

Birds of Washington – by Stan Tekiela