After my report of a peregrine on the ship canal bridge in Seattle
yesterday several people wrote to remind me that "Freeway" had been
supplanted (for example see below). As I said I have no idea whether this
was "Freeway" or not but it seems plausible that if "Freeway" happened to
arrive in the area first, she might try to recapture her old territory
possibly only to be supplanted again when D1 (or someone else) arrives. In
any case he/she was there again this morning, this time on top of the North
tower.

Jim Elder (jelder at sea-dmi.com)
SEA, Inc.
7030 220th St. SW
Mountlake Terrace, WA

On Tuesday, October 26, 1999 8:22 PM, Ruth Taylor [SMTP:rutht at seanet.com]
wrote:
> At 09:35 AM 10/26/99 -0700, you wrote:
> > Also of interest, at 8:30 this morning (10/26/99) a peregrine falcon
was
> >sitting on the top of the south transmission line tower next to the I-5
> >bridge over the ship canal in Seattle. Personally I couldn't say
whether
> >it was "Freeway" but it was the usual place. This is the first time
this
> >year I have seen a falcon there.
>
> Hi Jim.
> I keep track of peregrine sightings in Seattle (for Falcon Research
Group)so
> I usually pester :-) people who report peregrines on Tweeters.
> A bit of an update on "Freeway" - she's been gone for over a year. She
> returned September of last year, 1998, for her 8th winter season but
> disappeared after a couple of weeks. At the time of her return, there was
a
> second year female (D1) who had been on that territory since the prior
> spring. There were no witnesses to combat, but we speculate that with
this
> very aggressive young bird around, Freeway may have chosen to go
elsewhere.
> She was at least ten years old (fully adult when banded winter of 91-92);
> there's some speculation that older birds may not be able to hold these
> prime territories like the Ship Canal Bridge.
> D1 (her VID band reading) is from the San Juans and stuck around all
winter
> (she was the bird whose relentless harassment of red-tails on the UW
campus
> was often posted to Tweeters) and then shifted to the Grain Terminal in
the
> spring. There has not been a confirmed sighting of her since early
summer,
> though there have been sporadic reports of adults at the bridge (these
> sightings have mostly been at express lane level rather than main line).
> A friend of mine reported a peregrine on top of the north power tower
around
> 3:00 this afternoon - maybe the same bird you saw. I don't know who this
> bird is, but I hope it sticks around; there's been a peregrine there
every
> winter since 91-92 and it feels empty without one!
> Would love to hear from you if you have any other peregrine sightings
around
> town.
>
> Ruth Taylor
> Seattle
> rutht at seanet.com
>
>