Well hello all of you,
We have near 200 AMERICAN Wigeon, about 30 SURF scoters plus also saw 2
WHITE-WINGED scoters yesterday (but not today), 10-15 HORNED grebes, and
the first 2 DOUBLE-CRESTED cormorants who will spend their winter days
roosting on the Marina totem entry. Today the woodland area just east of
the Senior Center buildings was full of joyful noise and motion: At
least 30, mostly juvenile, CEDAR waxwings plus mixed flocks of BROWN
creepers, both CLACK-CAPPED and CHESTNUT-BACKED chickadees, GOLDEN-CROWNED
kinglets, YELLOW-RUMPED warblers, BEWICK'S wrens, and the lutescens ssp.
of the ORANGE-CROWNED warbler.

I will be leaving the Des Moines Marina area in the next few weeks. My
condominium lease is being terminated due to the pending sale of my unit
(I declined the offer to buy this---just not a good value IMO.) So,
Tweets living in Tukwila, the SouthCenter area, or the central and west
valley areas of Kent, I'm looking in your area for a good valued
condominium. The quality of life here, especially for our Marina
wintering birds, is likely to diminish quite soon. This area is targeted
to stage the MASSIVE transfer of gravel/fill brought over from Maury
Island and elsewhere to construct the 3rd runway at SeaTac International.
That means big, noisy, dusty conveyor belts and dump-trucks running
24hrs/day/2-5 years!!!

Thais Bock plus numerous officials and citizens in the little towns of
Normandy Park and Des Moines, etc., are trying to mount a resistence to
this "progress." Des Moines Marina is a quiet, picture-postcard scenic
area with a lot of nearby senior/family residential complexes plus some
incredibly expensive estates on the adjacent bluffs; I frankly do not know
what the alternatives are (other than somebody else's "back yard") if it
is already determined that the 3rd runway will be built. It has been
suggested by some people running for public office that an entirely new
airport "away" from the current site is really what is needed. So, that
means more open land, forests, ecological communities, and salmon streams
(a really much worse scenerio than even the current Marina involvement)
will be impacted. Yikes and NOT, please!

Good luck to us all and our associated feathered/furred associates,

Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-