Subject: [Tweeters] Where is the "fill" Pacific-sloped flycatchers hatched
Date: Jul 4 11:58:06 2006
From: Connie Sidles - csidles at isomedia.com


To find the Montlake Fill (also now called the Union Bay Natural Area):

Take I-5 to NE 45th Street exit in Seattle. Go east, through the U District,
and down a long ramp. At the base of the ramp is a stoplight. Go east
through the stoplight, past another stoplight, to a third stoplight. This is
Mary Gates Blvd. Turn right (south). Ahead, you will see the Center for
Urban Horticulture (CUH), as the road curves to the left. Just before the
road curves, you can turn into a drive on the right that leads to a small
parking lot immediately to the west of CUH. You can park here for free. To
the west, northwest, south, and southeast is the Montlake Fill. If you start
walking west on Wahkiakum Trail (gravel trail, marked by a street sign in
the parking lot), you can loop around the main part of the Fill. At the
westernmost point of this loop trail is the dime parking lot. There is a
wooden bridge at the northwest corner of this parking lot. You can cross
this bridge and walk along a road south for more Fill area - all the way
down to the crew dock. You can also walk north on this road until you run
into the golf driving range. To the east of the CUH parking lot is a newly
developed area with a lot of riparian habitat. This used to be covered with
blackberry bushes but is now being turned into a beautiful bird sanctuary
with a circular chip trail. Unfortunately, the trail keeps getting flooded
by the lake, but it's still fun to walk along here and see how far you can
get. To the south of the CUH building is a slough and more riparian habitat.
All these habitats are microhabitats and have their favored bird species. To
cover them all thoroughly would take most of the day, even though the total
size of the property isn't that large. But you cannot walk more than a step
or two before more birds appear, so progress is deliciously slow.

I was at the Fill this morning and saw some notables:
SPOTTED SANDPIPER
TWO LEAST SANDPIPERS
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW
CINNAMON TEAL PAIR
WOOD DUCKS APLENTY
COOPER'S HAWK
GREEN HERON- Connie, Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com


on 7/4/06 9:46 AM, Gene Stagner at microfauna at earthlink.net wrote:

>
> Lots of mentions of great birds at the "fill" or sometimes the "Montlake
> fill". For those of us who are Seattle geography challenged, what is
> the specific location of this area?
>
> Thanks
>
> Gene Stagner
>
> PS. After over three weeks on the nest the PS flycatchers over our back
> door have successfully hatched 4 young and are busily feeding them. Any
> ideas how long before they fly?
>
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters