Date: 7/1/26 1:24 pm From: Ted Ryan via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] evening grosbeaks in urgent trouble on hwy 20
Nikita,
If advocacy on behalf of the birds is your goal I'd like to suggest that using the term "murder" and slowing down to 15MPH on a highway is a tough way to persuade those that are unaware of the issue. Everyone else in their cars are only going to see someone driving at an unsafe speed, more likely to inflame than inform.
We all care about birds here and I think agree in taking reasonable measures to insure they thrive. In my experience, that is best done through appealing to people's general sense of doing what is right, not calling them murderers and proposing a ban on road salt, which is a human safety issue that is just as important.
Best regards,
Ted Ryan Kitsap County
> Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:45:06 -0700 > From: via Tweeters <tweeters...> > To: <Tweeters...> > Subject: [Tweeters] evening grosbeaks in urgent trouble on hwy 20 > Message-ID: <008b01dd0903$a04018d0$e0c04a70$@gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > > 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 > > > >
