On this episode I got to reminisce with Josh Covill about our Colombia Santa Marta trip, to learn about his guide business in Montana and how he becamne so proficient with the birds of the neotropics. Josh is both an outstanding birder, but also a funny, humble and all-around nice guy. I was so happy to talk with Holly Garrod, whom I learned about from Josh while on the Colombia trip, and she was such a terrific guest on episode #170.
Josh was right on in his assessment of the group on our trip. We all seemed to have fun together, and there were no real difficult individuals. For anyone interested you can read about our trip on my eBird trip list here. Here is a link to an article about the new antpita species we got to see at El Dorado. For some of my photos of the trip here is a Flickr album link.
You can find Josh’s website for Montana birding tours here, or his page on the Hillstar Nature site here.
Author: birdbanter
A Great Day in Early Spring in Eastern WA
Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I met at 6 AM yesterday to go on our more-or-less annual pilgramage to see our FOY birds that are most easily seen in eastern WA. I chose this day because we could all go, and because the weather looked promising. As we got over the Cascades about 7:30 it was clear that the weather was going to cooperate, and as we got to our first stop for sage species though still chilly, there was almost no wind (rare for this wind-farm area) and the sun warmed things up. Sage Thrashers were singing in all directions, and we also added the expected Brewer’s Sparrow and hoped for Vesper Sparrow both singing and perching in view for us.
One of the cool things about birding in the spring in wide open areas is that the birds there have big loud songs. At our next stop, the Wild Horse Puget Sound Wind Farm HQ, Sagebrush Sparrow was no exception, as were Mountain Bluebirds, Say’s Phoebe and more thrashers and Brewer’s Sparrows.
From here we worked our way along the Old Vantage Hwy to Vantage. Along the way we stopped to see the Great Horned Owl on a nest at a cliffside area, and then on to the Gingko boat ramp, where Rock Wrens were singing, but we missed Canyon Wren.
From here we headed to the County Line Ponds. At County Line Ponds the American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts were easily seen, but the highlights for us were large flocks of Sandhill Cranes calling and flying overhead, an immature Golden Eagle on a utility pole, singing Horned Lark, and great studies, thanks to Ken’s expertise, of the Gambellii subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow.
From hgere on to Othello, where very few blackbirds were to be found, though we added Yellow-headed Blackbird we dipped on Tricolored. FOY Cliff Swallows, that nest in numbers under bridge there were FOY for all of us, and we looked over the vast flocks of Cackling Geese, finding one Greater White-fronted but no rarities. Shorebirds were overall absent. (Killdeer and Black-necked Stilts were there).
We enjoyed the weather, the Mariner’s game on Ken’s phone, and our company as we crossed the Columbia NWR to the Moses Lake area for FOY Clark’s Grebe before heading home. On any trip there are some cool finds.
When the Mariner’s saved their terrible road trip from total disaster with a 10 inning 6-1 win our smiles were cemented for the ride home.
I think Bruce and Ken both had 15+ FOY species for the trip (I went to Yakima last month, so had a few of these) and one more great day birdng with friends is in the book.
The Bird Banter Podcast #171 with Courtney Ellis Additional Info.
Courtney was a joy to talk with, and helped me gain perspective into the experiences of birders who became interested in birding during the pandemic when birding was arguably the perfect passtime. Getting outdoors, either alone or with friends, was just about the description of how to have fun without significant exposure to infection.
Be sure to check out, and ideally buy, Courtney’s soon to be released book.
Click on the image above to go to Courtney’s website for a link to buy the book.
Courtney also has her own birding podcast, The Thing with Feathers that you may want to check out.
Some of my fondest birding memories are from the Orange County area of California, where Kay and I took the kids many times, and Kay visited for longer visits in her last couple of years. I strongly recommend scheduling some time for birding if you visit the area.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #170 with Holly Garrod Additional Info.
I first heard about Holly Garrod from the guide on my Hillstar Nature Tours guide, Joshua Covill. Holly Garrod is the bird banding coordinator for Birds Caribbean, creator and leader of the Caribbean Bird Banding Network, as well as Outreach Manager and an Avian Ecologist at the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab. I so enjoyed talking with Holly. Her energy and passion is wonderful to experience, and I learned a lot from our discussion.
We talk about bird banding, as well as about the Motus bird tracking system. I love that we can now learn so much about the movements of even small birds and other migratory creatures like butterflies using tiny transmitters that can be attached to even very small creatures and a network of recievers. Every time a transmission is detected by a receiver the information is sent to the Motus data network. In this way movements of tagged animals (birds, fish, butterflies, etc.) can be followed. Holly and others are helping involve the Caribbean Islands in the network of receiving for Motus.
For understanding the migration of many of our North American neotropic migrants this is key. Check out the range maps of these birds for example.
As you can see these two species and lots more pass over or through the Caribbean Islands.
A part of the Birds Caribbean work is developing the Caribbean Birding Trail, with local hotspots, guides and more. There is now a dedicated website to the Caribbean Birding Trail resources.
Stay tuned for future episodes with Josh Covill.
The Bird Banter Podcast #169: Ed’s Winter Trip Additional Info.
It’s good to be home, and good to add the latest episode to the podcast. This winter’s trip away from the rainy Pacific Northwest started in Florida. About 10 minutes before my planned 3 AM alarm to dash off to SEATAC for a 6 AM flight to Orlando, my brother Bill called to let me know he had just tested positive for Covid, and that I shouldn’t visit. That made for 5-6 days of improvization necessary before Marian and I could arrive at the Big Pine Key home that a family friend of Marian was letting us use. We had tentatively planned to visit Epcot Center from Bill’s place in The Villages, and so decided to start our trip in that direction. First though I convinced Marian that trying to see the American Flamingos that had been blown north from their Rio Lagartos stronghold. Four birds had been being seen consistently at the Merritt Island NWR–Haulover Canal Area most days, and so on our first night in Florida Marian and I drove to Cocoa, FL for a night, then headed to the NWR early the next AM. On arrival at the hotspot, it was easy to spot, but hard to really see with binoculars the four flamingos, maybe a mile offshore near a small reef-island.
In addition to the flamingos we enjoyed nearby Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins, Ruddy Turnstones and plenty of waders.
We had a nice day exploring the island and refuge. We planned to stay until evening to watch a Space-X manned missle launch, but it was postponed, so heaed back for another night in Cocoa before heading for Disney World the next morning.
Epcot Center seemed much more worn-down and commercial than I had remembered from years ago, but we had a nice day walking around and easily avoiding buying Disney themed junk.
Marian in front of the Epcot entrance.[/caption]
After a night in Orlando, we decided to take a couple of days to drive south toward Miami. A nice stop was at the Loxahatchee NWR where we took a midday walk on the March Trail. A pair of Sandhill Cranes were on the dike trail, and essentially refused to move aside, so we quietly walked past them with these iPhone photos unavoidable.
From here we decided to spend a couple of days at Miami Beach, and ate well, checked out the beach, and generally played tourist.
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Miami Beach
From here we headed for the beach house on Big Pine Key where we enjoyed the weather, views and quiet time. Birding was very slow, but some of the Florida specialties obliged.
American Aligator at the Blue Hole.
White Morph of the Great Blue Heron.
Key Deer are a very small subspecies of White-tailed Deer. They are protected, very tame and abundant on Big Pine Key.
After a nice vacation at Big Pine Key, we drove back to Miami where Marian headed on to visit family in Georgia, and I waited to pick up Bruce LaBar at the airport that evening. During the wait I chased and ticked my second ABA lifer of the trip, a Yellow-headed Caracara that had been visiting the Pelican Pavillion at Oleta River State Park at the end of the afternoon most days.
Yellow-headed Caracara[/caption]
After picking up Bruce, the next morning we met Mariah Hrynovich and her husband Luis for a day to try for as many of the Miami area target lifers as possible for Bruce. Too many photos to include most, but the Biltmore Hotel grounds were very cool with lots of parakeets and parrots, along with the historic hotel where many famous guests and movies have been filmed.
Our trip was with Joshua Covill of Hillstar Nature Tours, and was an overall fabulous trip. There were too many photos to put many here. Check out my Flickr album for lots of pics, and the eBird trip report for details.
After the Colombia trip I headed on for a nice visit with Jean and Alan in Costa Rica. This was in large part a family trip. Here are a few photos.
This King Vulture flew right over Jean and Alan’s home and landed in a tree quite close.
Check out Jean’s Regenerate Your Reality website.
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more episodes with guests.
Good Birding.
Florida Jan. 2023
Marian and I had a nice vacation in a friend of Marian’s Big Pine Key home from Jan 21 until Jan 31, and it was very quiet and pleasant. Overall cooler than last year, and quite windy at times. We visited Key West one day, and a couple of beaches nearby other days, but overall I birded locally a bit each morning, and we relaxed a lot. Binged on a couple of Prime series, and read a lot.
Jan 31 I dropped off Marian, and that afternoon I headed north to Oleta River State Park, where for a few weeks an ABA first (accepted by the Florida Bird Records Committee, not yet by ABA) Yellow-headed Caracara has been seen. It has seemed to develop a pattern of a morning visit to fish cleaning areas, and in the afternoon, after things at the picnic area quiet down, stopping by the Pelican Pavilion Picnic Area to look for scraps. I got there about 2:45 and waited. At about 5:03 I spotted the caracara come in low over the beach, and three birders, including me, got great looks and photo ops for about 20 minutes.
Amazingly, after picking up Bruce that night, spending a day with Mariah Hryniwich and her spouse and partner Luis who took us out for a great day of briding, I took Bruce back and the bird gave a repeat performance on the next day.
On the day with Mariah and Luis we got several exotics, Spot-breasted Oriole, Red-masked and Mitred Parakeet, Orange-winged Parakeet (not yet listable), along with Limpkin and several other cool species. It was fun to be with Mariah and Luis for the day.
After getting the Caracara we headed north, spent the night in North Ft. Lauderdale, had a great dinner at a Jewish kosher deli for hummus and Mediterranean food, and a nice night at a the Fairfield Inn and Suites, we headed north to have a nice walk, but no Nanday Parakeets, at Loxahatchee NWR, before ticking Florida Scrub Jay at Jonathan Dickinson SP. A long drive back to Miami, then overnight and at the airport to head to Barranquilla, Colombia for a week of birding.
The Space Coast to Big Pine Key
Marian and I left Cocoa, FL on Thursday, Jan 18th and visited Epcot Center, a place that can be decribed as a nice place for a walk where you spend a lot to park to be able to pay a lot to enter where you can spend a lot for mediocre food and on Disney Brand merchandise. Anyway, it was a pleasant day. On the walk around the center pond we saw the various “country demonstrations”, had some Tex-Mex food, and visited a few exhibits with rides.
That night we stayed in a nearby area with more “entertainment park” stuff, and headed south. We made a very nice stop at Loxahatchee NWR, where we spent a couple of hours walking on the marsh trail, Purple Galinule, Yellow-throated Warbler, Sandhill Cranes being the birding highlights, and then on to spend two nights in Miami Beach. We splurged on a hotel right in the middle of the tourist area, the Esmé, a tiny room but nice place. Overall good food, a nice beach, and it was nice to show Marian the place.
From there we drove down to Marian’s frineds place in Big Pine Key, where we will be staying for about 10 days before I head back to Miami for a couple of days of birding before the Santa Marta’s in Colombia with Bruce LaBar and Gene Revelas.
Today was very windy here, so I found shelter in a place called the “Blue Hole” where I found a small warbler flock with a Black-and-white Warbler and an American Redstart with the many Yellow-rumped and one Palm Warbler.
A nice afternoon walk to No Name Key was surprisingly without waders.
Good birding.
Arrival in Florida and a Change in Plans
The week leading up to our trip to Florida was one with several phone conversations with my brother Bill and his wife Carol whom we planned on visiting for the first few days in Florida. He had just had a PRP (platelet rich plasma) injection in his arthritic knee, and we having a terrible reaction with swelling and lots of pain. He was going to be unable to pick us up in Orlando, so we arranged the day prior for a one-way car rental, but about 15 minutes prior to my 3:05 alarm was to go off to get ready for our Lyft to Seatac Bill contacted me to know that he now had a cough and tested + for Covid. An abrupt change in plans, as I changed the car rental to a 5-day rental with a drop off in Marathon Keyca where we planned our second stay of the trip.
We drove to Cocoa, Florida for a couple of days near Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, some local birding and to watch the Space X launch this evening. The night went as planned, and this morning we got up and headed to Merritt Island NWR where 4 adult American Flamingos have been seen most days since being blown in by Hurricane Idalia. We got to the Haulout Canal location, and easily saw the flamingos about a mile away by a small island. Easy to see, but difficult to ID for sure (Roseate Spoonbills are also bright pink) but a friendly birder gave us a scope view to confirm the ID. ABA lifer for me, lifer for Marian, and a nice start to the day. We got even better views, and I taught two visiting birders how to digiscope, for them and then for me!
The rest of the day was exploring. The highlight was the Merritt Island–Black Point Wildlife Drive. A fabulous 6+ mile auto loop, with getting out of the car allowed, and great looks at most of the possible waders.
From there we went to Titusville for very nice Mexican for lunch, where I got online to learn that the planned launch at Kennedy was postponed until tommorrow (windy?) and we birded a bit and came back to our hotel for some rest and dinner.
Tomorrow maybe Epcot if we have the energy.
I different, but very nice start to the trip
The Bird Banter Podcast #168 with Liam Hutcheson Additional Info.
On this episode I talk with Liam Hutcheson, who just finished his record breaking Washington State big year. We talk about his big year, highlights, misses and people. Also about his birding story. The prior WA record holder for most species seen in a calandar year was Will Brooks, and we talk about his big year on Episode #121. While talking with Liam I marveled at how interconnected our birding community is, and how helpful birders are to each other. Pervious guests on the show who helped in one way or another with Liam’s birding and his big year include:
Bill Tweit episode #8 Bill is such an icon in Washington State birding that I felt so proud and happy to have him as one of my early guests. He is also just a really nice guy.
Shep Thorpe episode #9 In the next episode I continued my streak of both extraordinary WA birders, but also really nice people with Shep.
Ryan Rodriguez episode #47 Ryan has been my youngest guest on the podcast, at age 12 when we met and did the recording.
Ken Brown #2, Bruce LaBar #3 and I were with Liam on a trip in early 2023 with Jacob Miller to the southeast corner of WA to see winter specialties.
For more details check out the BirdBanter.com blog post about this episode.
Until next time, good birding!
The Bird Banter Podcast #167 with Marco Valtriani Additional Info.
I visited Italy over a decade ago with my wife Kay, who was also a birder, and we were pretty surprised at how few birds we were able to see. I learned while talking with Marco Valtriani, my guest on this episode that it was likely because we looked in all the wrong places for the season we visited, I believe in early October. I learned lots more and really enjoyed talking with Marco. He is a lead guide for Birding in Italy, a bird guide group who specialized in Italy, and especially taking visiting birders whose primary reason for visiting Italy may be other tourist activities, but who want to get in a day or more of birding and use the time optimally.
I learned that Italy has a lot of national park land set aside, but than much of it has been used for human activities over the centuries prior to being set aside. I also was pleased to learn that the practice of killing songbirds for food has been markedly curtailed and is a minimal issue today.
I also talk about this being the Christmas Bird Count Season, and my experiences and enjoyment from participating in CBCs. Consider joining a count near you, find one here.
You can read the Audubon summary report of last year’s CBCs here. For more granular data on any particular count here is a link.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding.