Subject: Re: 03-30-98 Birding by Bus 7:45AM-8:30AM
Date: Apr 2 19:46:01 1998
From: duncanweber - duncanweber at seanet.com


Maureen and Tweeters,

I regularly see a Red-tail on I 405 just north of the NE 160 St off ramp
(north of Kingsgate) while doing a 237 trip.

The only other Red-tail I have seen is where 90 merges with I-5 (Rainier
Ave and Dearborn) and that was only once about a month ago. This may be
the same Red-tail I used to see soaring over Metro's Central Base (a few
blocks east of the Kingdome).

I do see Bald Eagles regularly while on I-90 at Mercer Island. I usually
point these out to my passengers who seem inappropriately unimpressed.
By far the most interesting sightings are on my trip home across 520,
especially the Hooded Mergansers that hang out around Foster Island.

About a week ago we had what I believe was a Song Sparrow singing at the
Convention Place tunnel station and today a White-crowned Sparrow
singing. Even got the attention of some non-birding bus drivers with my
binoculars on the sparrow (I'm always trying to get people interested in
birds).

Ileen Weber
Seattle, WA
duncanweber at seanet.com

>I think that's fabulous to point out the Peregrin!!! From the UW BUSMAP
>brochure, I see your current route Metro 226 goes across the I-90 floating
>bridge, so you get view of eagles, cormorants and stuff on the water.
>Traffic flow usually pretty good on I-90 Lake Washington bridge, so it's
>probably high speed birding. Do you have any east side Red-tails along
>that route? The closer-to-the-city I-5 corridor Red-tails are a declining
>population over my past 5 years of viewing them.