On Tue, 16 Jan 1996, J. Marrazzo wrote:
> along the shoreline up to around the Lakewood Marina. In fact, the only
> time I've seen hooded m's in the city was in Magnolia, near Palisades
> restaurant (sorry, don't know the proper geographic nomenclature). Are
> hoodeds common in the city? Thanks for any comments.

How funny. Perhaps we should go birding together. Would we see no
mergansers or all of them?

My experience with mergs in Seattle (as stated before) is that Hooded
Mergs and Common Mergs are fairly easy to find on Lake Washington.
Hooded Mergs can usually be found in sheltered coves, usually surrounded
by trees (and fairly quiet). Hooded Mergs nest at the Montlake Fill, and
can be seen there all year. Also along the waterfront at the Arboretum,
and less commonly at Seward Park. Common Mergs are usually out in deep
water. There has been a female nesting at Seward Park for at least the
past two years. And as far as Red-breasted Mergs, I think I've only
twice seen them on the lake, usually by the I-90 bridge. But fairly easy
to find out at Alki if the weather is calm.

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html