Date: 6/30/26 9:14 pm From: Steve Hampton via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] evening grosbeaks in urgent trouble on hwy 20
Contact WDFW as well. (509) 309-8175 Email us: <info...>
They may be able to work with Dept of Transportation for a solution.
On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 8:36 PM Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> Sounds terrible. Other than contacting some authority who prefers not to
> be contacted, I guess the best thing to do is to document it thoroughly in
> hopes of future remediation.. I queried Chat GPT, which confirmed your
> analysis. Here is the response. There were photos supporting what you
> report,, which I've had to delete because Tweeters don't accept them. Bob
> OBrien Portland
>
> ChatGPT response.
>
> Yes. In fact, as I read the message, several details immediately rang a
> bell. This is *not a new phenomenon*, although it does appear to be
> unusually severe in some years.
>
>
> The key point is that the explanation given—*road salt attracting Evening
> Grosbeaks*—is considered the leading explanation by many ornithologists
> and transportation biologists. It isn't just internet speculation.
>
> Several independent sources document this:
>
> - Evening Grosbeaks, along with Pine Siskin, Red Crossbill, and other
> finches, are well known to congregate on salted roads where they pick up *salt
> and small gravel (grit)* needed for digestion.
> - Birds feeding on roads often become surprisingly reluctant to flush
> and can appear almost tame or lethargic, leading to heavy mortality from
> vehicles. Transportation researchers have even proposed studies to
> determine whether excessive sodium itself contributes to this behavior.
> - One documented case in British Columbia reported *at least 2,000
> Evening Grosbeaks killed along only 16 km of highway*.
>
> The interesting part is that *Kelly McAllister of the Washington State
> Department of Transportation* actually proposed research on exactly this
> issue over a decade ago. The proposal notes that finches are periodically
> drawn to salted roads, where many are crushed by vehicles, and that
> transportation agencies need better information to develop mitigation
> strategies.
> Why this year?
>
> That's the million-dollar question.
>
> Several things probably have to line up:
>
> - A large local concentration of Evening Grosbeaks.
> - Late snow or limited natural mineral sources.
> - Fresh salt remaining on the pavement after winter.
> - Dry pavement that makes the salt easy to find.
> - The birds' seasonal need for grit and minerals.
>
> These "perfect storm" years may occur only occasionally, which explains
> why someone could drive SR-20 for years without seeing anything like this.
> Is road salt definitely the culprit?
>
> Probably—but with an important qualification.
>
> The birds are likely attracted to *both*:
>
> - sodium salts, and
> - grit (small stones) that they swallow to grind seeds in the gizzard.
>
> Those two often occur together on mountain highways.
> What can actually be done?
>
> Simply banning road salt isn't necessarily practical. SR-20 crosses high
> mountain passes, and road salt can greatly reduce serious accidents.
>
> More realistic mitigation measures might include:
>
> - sweeping residual salt and grit from shoulders after snow season,
> - using alternative de-icers where feasible,
> - identifying recurring "hot spots,"
> - temporary warning signs during peak mortality,
> - reduced speed limits through affected stretches,
> - research into whether different de-icing materials reduce bird
> attraction.
>
> Transportation biologists have been discussing these possibilities for
> years, but there is still surprisingly little hard research.
> One thing that caught my attention
>
> The writer says:
>
> "dead birds every few feet"
>
> If that is literally true over many miles, that represents *an
> exceptionally large mortality event*, even by the standards of previous
> reports. I would hope the state wildlife agency documents it.
>
> Given your birding background, I'd also be interested in one more
> question: *Were they really all Evening Grosbeaks?* Large flocks of
> finches can include Pine Siskin, Red Crossbill, and Cassin's Finch in the
> Cascades. An actual survey of the carcasses would tell us whether one
> species is disproportionately affected.
>
> This is exactly the sort of event that organizations such as the Washington
> Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology would
> likely want documented if it is occurring on the scale described.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 7:45 PM via Tweeters <tweeters...>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Hi Tweeters,
>>
>>
>>
>> I drove to the north cascades on Saturday for a hike, and I saw an
>> absolute horror.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Something absolutely horrible is happening right now on the North
>> Cascades highway (SR-20). Definitely hundreds, if not thousands of little
>> birds are getting murdered. Right after the highway starts to climb up
>> after the Diablo reservoir and reaches the sub-alpine areas until it goes
>> back down after the Washington pass, these little birds are attracted to
>> the road for some reason. Flocks of birds are sitting on the median line,
>> rumble strips and sides. There are many birds and they are just getting
>> plowed through by the car drivers. I have never seen something so horrible
>> before. There are dead birds on the road every few feet. Literally. I have
>> also never seen birds being so attracted to the roadway before either. I
>> drove this stretch of the highway at 15mph for an hour and made several
>> other drivers mad (their problem!), and I didn’t hit any birds, but it is
>> just horrible carnage out there regardless.* *Looking online, I found
>> out the birds are called evening grosbeaks and several people think that
>> most likely birds are on the road because they are attracted to the road
>> salt. If that is true, at least we can do something to save them. Why is
>> WSDOT still using road salt? Who can we complain to ban road salt??? This
>> is unacceptable.*
>>
>> *I see many other people reported the same situation online, looks like
>> evening grosbeaks are getting killed by thousands since Hwy opened.*
>>
>>
>>
>> 1. *I have already messaged WSDOT on their social media, but they
>> didn’t respond.*
>> 2. *Is the guess even correct, and the birds are attracted to the
>> salt? If so, why I have not seen this problem in years past.*
>> 3. *Most important: what can we do to help the birds?*
>>
>>
>>
>> *Nikita*
>>
>>
>>
>>
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