I was just at the paper mill flats. This was my first time there and i
have a few questions for people who are more familiar with the area.
First, its not there is really a path correct? Just park on that little
shoulder and walk towards the lake. Second, due to the deep braids of
the streams its very difficult to get anywhere at all, am i missing a
designated path? I've seen some people report that they found species in
the fields, all i found was about 1000 feet until all my options were
depleted. All the waterfowl was on the far shore, if this is always the
case, is there any point of trying to bird without carrying in a scope,
this would be considerably more difficult, since to get to the best
position i had to leap across some streams, (not something i'm going to
do while clutching a scope). All in all, not actually a bad hike. 
Totals:
10 common mergansers
4 hooded mergansers
3 black ducks
6 ring necked ducks 
thats all