Scott Downes is one of the top WA state listers with 440 WA species on his eBird list, and his daughter Sierra is an avid birder who has been among the top WA listers and birders for the last few years. We talk about the joys of birding as a father-daughter team, their experiences and their favorite birds seen together. Scott works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, largely in the Shrub-Steppe habitats. Sierra is a high-schooler who finds time to get out on many trips with her Dad too. Sierra was honored as the Patrick Sullivan Young Birder Award recipient a year ago, but due to Covid has had to postpone her planned attendance at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory Young Birders Camp Chiricahua until this summer. We talk about how Sierra and Scott made lemonade out of the lemon of the cancelled camp last year by taking an Arizona trip together.
Scott and Sierra both contributed to a great video on the Shrub-steppe habitat that is on You Tube:
We also talk about how Scott negotiated with Phil Anderson of Westport Seabirds to allow then 10 year old Sierra to take her first pelagic trip, experiencing the pelagic phenomenon off the WA coast at a young age. She did great and has been on several pelagic trips since.
The Downes’ are listers, and this led me to talk in the introduction about my big days of the last week. I posted in the Ed’s notes part of the birdbanter.com site with trip reports for anyone interested.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!
Author: birdbanter
Mason County Big Day May 4, 2021
Ken Brown, Jacob Miller and I undertook a Mason County Big Day on Tuesday May 4th. This is something that to the best of our knowledge has not really been attempted, though on WABirder there are big day reports for Oct (66), Nov (57), and Dec (57) reported, those are months where realistically a big-day record could not hold up against a peak spring migration attempt.
Ken and Jacob did all the planning, and I was along for fun and good birding. Ken and I decided camp out at Jacob’s family’s Skokomish Valley Farms where we planned to begin the day. We were delighted to discover on arrival that we could sleep under cover in the home that they are building, and that Jacob had several nice comfortable sleeping pads we could add to our camping gear, so after arriving about 8:30 PM we quickly crashed on the floor there. I was especially ready for sleep after my Pierce County Big Day the day (Sunday) prior and working Monday. So Monday night passed quickly, and at 4:30 AM Ken’s alarm went off and we were birding by 4:50 AM.
The hoped for Barn Owl did not cooperate. Barn Owl was our only stake-out owl, so without this we faced a possible big day without any owls. Still the Skokomish Valley Farm and surrounding properties came through big-time with birds. Jacob led the way, as it is his near-daily birding turf, and despite fog and drizzle we had a list of 57 species before we left the farm at about 8:25 AM after 3 ½ hours and per eBird 4.89 miles of mostly walking. Highlights were a drumming Ruffed Grouse, a Sooty Grouse both calling and seen perched high in a distant snag. Western Bluebirds, Evening Grosbeaks at Jacob’s feeders, many singing House Wrens and MacGilvary’s Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, and most of the early-arriving migrants were found.
Leaving the farm I spotted a Varied Thrush flush from the roadside, and when we stopped for the other guys to find it we added our first Pacific Wren. Near the river Vaux Swifts zoomed overhead, and many Common Mergansers swam and flew around. Our first Warbling Vireo was singing, but the hoped for Cassin’s Vireo was not located.
With 60+ land birds listed, we headed for salt water. Our first stop was at Potlatch State Park, where despite being pretty dispersed and mostly distant scope views we managed 11 Common and one Red-throated Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Goldeneye, Surf Scoter, and a fly-by Whimbrel.
At the Hwy 106 overlook. One of the low-points of the day was a grumpy worker/resident across the street who shooed us off the parking pullout (private property) so much of the viewing was from the side of the road. Still we managed another Whimbrel and a few ducks and gulls.
At Union we added a Red-breasted Merganser, three Purple Martins that we heard for a long time, scanning the sky before realizing that they were nesting in a utility pole and calling from a perch there, our only Western Grebe of the day, and across the road a perched distant FOY for most of us Western Tanager.
Twanoh State Park yielded Red Crossbill, and we managed a small group of 3 each Common and Barrows Goldeneye át a stop when they were spotted from the car. On the way back we stopped just shy of the usual Hwy 106 pullout to avoid the grumpy guy, and a receding tide yielded more shorebirds, adding Western and Least Sandpipers, along with N Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, and a nice flock of Ring-billed Gulls. Another stop off Hwy 106 gave us Green-winged Teal.
Hunter Farms was our last big-haul of birds for the day stop. It came through nicely. The best bird of the day in our collective opinion was spotted by Jacob on a fenceline. A Western Kingbird was a county lifer for Ken (and of course for me too), and FOY for all of us. Jacob had spotted American Pipits in a plowed field from the initial scan, and we all located about 3 sneaking around the plowed furrows after some looking. Of course, after we saw them and relaxed a flock estimated for the eBird list at 25 bird took flight calling. Ken promised Wilson’s Snipe in a certain area of moist field on our way out, and sure enough two flushed about 10 steps into the field. A Lincoln’s Sparrow atop a bramble was our only one of the day.
The biggest miss of the day, possibly excluding the Barn Owl, was the hoped for shorebirds at the Kennedy Creek Estuary along Hwy 101. It was one of the most out-of-the-way stops, and we hoped for at least Greater Yellowlegs and hopefully Black-bellied Plover. On arrival the tides seemed good, but a single Killdeer was the only shorebird in sight. Nearby we did add House Sparrow and California Scrub Jay in Shelton though.
A stop in Shelton at Goose Lake gave us one of the highlights of the trip. As we looked around for ducks, adding Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Duck to our list, Jacob heard a Bushtit. It was a species we needed, but he was hearing it across the lake, maybe 150 yards away. I hear pretty well for an old guy, but had no chance of hearing this bird. Ken looked for a minute and walked towards the car giving up, but I studied the far side of the lake bushed in the scope, and amazingly a single Bushtit was flitting around. I yelled to Ken, he jogged back, and got on the bird also. Jacob never could see the bird, so for him a heard only species, though he was the talent that found it. Woodpeckers were in abundance there too, with Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hairy and Downy all present.
We tried for Vesper Sparrow and Horned Lark at the Shelton Airport, without luck, and headed for Still Waters Farm. Mark and Beth Biser, acquaintances of Ken and friends of Jacob, have developed a large wetlands property into a fabulous nature area, with wooded wetlands, surrounding vegetation, and incredible numbers of Wood Ducks using nest boxes that they maintain. We listed 33 Wood Ducks, but they get even bigger numbers. We also took a break there, sitting on their back porch and marveling at the place for a few minutes before adding Pileated Woodpecker on the walk out.
Mark suggested that we try for Mountain Quail on E. Eagle Point Drive nearby, and we didn’t find any, but did find a singing Cassin’s Vireo while looking around.
We headed back to Jacob’s place via E Eell’s Hill Road from Shelton, and took our time hoping for raptors, Pygmy Owl or anything new. We did come into nice numbers of calling warblers, including Black-throated Gray and Townsend’s (our only ones of the day) before we headed back. Our plan was to wait for dark and hope to add the Barn Owl, but Ken and especially I were spent. We called it a day about 8:30, too early to hope for the owl over the fields and headed for home.
Our list for the day was 118 species, 116 IDed by all. Ken missed a couple of distant or faint heard-only birds, Jacob came through with his talented young ears and eyes, and we all had a great day. I added two Mason County firsts, the kingbird and American Pipit. My WA year list got up to 250, adding 10 FOY birds, mostly recently arriving neotropic migrants.
We travelled 99 miles by car, about 8.5 miles on foot, spent about 16 hours birding. The bar has been set for a Mason County Big Day, and a really enjoyable day for all three of us. Another year: timing seems just about right, we managed really all of the expected returning and remaining passerines. Misses were shorebirds, accipitors, and owls. We might be able to have a stakeout GHOW or BARO, and should be able to get the Barn Owl at Jacob’s place with some luck and maybe starting a few minutes earlier. Scouting the day prior for shorebirds might help. A nesting Cooper’s Hawk would be great.
Always good to have a wish list.
The Bird Banter Podcast #99 with Phil Green Additional Information
While I was birding in the San Juan Islands recently it was impossible to look over eBird and not be impressed that Phil Green seems to be everywhere on San Juan Island birding. He is the #1 San Juan County ebird lister by both species and checklists submitted, and often was the last birder to submit a list and most of the locations I was interested in visiting.
I used his eBird profile to find out that he was the resident Nature Conservancy employee on Yellow Island for many years, and seemed to be an interesting fellow. I reached out using his blog contact feature, and he agreed to be a guest on the podcast. I’m glad I did. Phil is a fascinating fellow, a passionate eBirder, and was really fun to talk with.
Check out his eBird profile here and his Yellow Island blog here.
Phil talks about the Cornell University Lab recording workshop. The 2021 workshop is cancelled due to Covid-19, but here is a link to their webpage.
The Nature Conservancy bought Yellow Island in 1979 and has preserved and restored the island habitat since. Their website gives more details, but the island was never used for grazing and so retains many of the native vegetation, and has a fabulous springtime wildflower show.
Bluebirds are being reintroduced to their historic range on San Juan Island. You can read about the effort here, and stay tuned for a future episode with Kathleen Foley to hear from one of the leaders of the effort. I am especially interested to hear the story because I believe some of the reintroduced birds are from the JBLM bluebird population I get to enjoy near home.
Please leave comments if you have thoughts to share.
Until next time, Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #98: Mixing a Family Trip with Birding in Costa Rica additional info.
Well, I’m back from la ong delayed and much anticipated, 4 week trip to CR to visit my daughter Jean and her husband Alan in Costa Rica (CR). I had planned to see them in April 2020, but Covid…
In this episode I ponder the dichotomy that birders face when vising family in a place where there are birds to be seen. This is also issues with visits to the coast, the mountains, the city park, the playground, and really everywhere, but for me it becomes more of an issue on a visit to family far from where I live and bird regularly. As with most big family trips, the primary purpose of my recent trip to Costa Rica was to visit family and spend time together, but always there was the lure of birds. I feel like the trip was successful in both regards. I had a nice visit with both my son and daughter, practiced my Spanish, caught up, and yet got in some birding every day and got off on a few day or longer trips too.
For more photos and less words, see my flickr album of photos fromt the trip.
We flew to San Jose on Feb 25th, arriving after a 3-leg trip through San Francisco and Houston, arriving in San Jose at 11:55 PM local time. After a quick sleep at a hotel beside the airport Marian and I got outside the next morning and birded the local eBird hotspot with a great name, the “Alajuela Walmart Woods” is a riparian area with a small creek between a Walmart and the highway to the airport. Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, White-winged and White-tipped Doves, Great Kiskadee, and GBH and Great Egret were birds I could identify, and as was usual for this trip for this inexperienced tropical birder, a few more that I had to leave unidentified.
We spent a couple of days in San Jose because my daughter had some business to attend to on Friday, and by CR Covid restrictions where everyone had one of the two weekend days with driving privileges based on license plate number, we could not leave until Sunday. It was fun to experience the city, but we were excited to leave Sunday. I did get up early each day and bird an hour or two in the little eBird Hotspot around the Hotel Aranjuez, adding a few birds to the trip list that were to be almost seen almost daily for most of the rest of the trip. Rufous-collared Sparrows seem to be everywhere there is open fragmented terrain, Blue-gray Tanagers and Palm Tanagers were nice to see, two of the yellowish flycatchers with black and white heads, Great Kiskadee, Social Flycatcher were fun to get reacquainted with, along with Tropical Flycatchers were all around. We also enjoyed meeting several of Jean and Alan’s friends and sampling the fruit and vegan food at the bid organic market on Saturday morning.
Jean is active in a project called Jungle Foods that aims to help small landowners use breadfruit and sustainable agroforestry techniques to feed their families and have breadfruit as a cash crop by being a market-maker for their breadfruit crop. It is a really cool project, and I’ll leave a link to Jungle Foods website and Facebook page in the podcast notes and on my BirdBanter.com blog. Jean was excited to show me the experimental farm their project uses as a source of seeds and to work on agroforestry techniques, so Sunday, Jean’s weekend day to drive, we headed toward the coast with a stop at the experimental farm. It was a wonderful place, located about 20 minutes outside San Jose, on a steep hillside, and Paul Zinc and Gustavo Angulo, the cofounders of the project showed us around and fed us some fabulous fruit while we all sampled the new breadfruit crackers the Jungle Project is working with Patagonia Provisions to bring to the world market. It was a great visit. My highlight was when after Paul tried to harvest a breadfruit from a tree on a very steep hillside he inadvertently knocked the fruit off the tree and it rolled down what looked like a cliff. He promptly dashed onto a nearly hidden path, disappeared for a while, and emerged carrying a giant Jackfruit on his shoulder. If you have not seen Jackfruit, it is a large, watermelon sized fruit with an outside rind that has a thorn-like covering where the thorns look like rose thorns but are much larger. Marian and my jaws dropped when he reemerged from the steep jungle ravine with this monster of a fruit. It made for great eating at lunch. It was late morning and midday while we were there, but we managed to point out a few species to our hosts, maybe almost earning our lunch.
From here we headed for the coast. For listeners not familiar with the geography of Costa Rica San Jose is located in a central valley between mountains really in all directions. Almost due west is the mouth of the Gulf of Nicoya, and the west coast of the country runs diagonally from North-west to south east with much of the shoreline facing almost more south than west if you are looking straight offshore once south of the Nicoya Peninsula. We got to the coast just north of Jaco, and drove along the coast for just over 100 KM to Dominical. The road passes through a long stretch of Palm Oil plantations, passes the surfing town of Jaco, the Rio Parrita and PN Carara, south-east to Quepos near where PN Manuel Antonio is a very popular stop for nature lovers and beach lovers alike. From there it continues to Dominical, and the junction of Hwy 243 and coastal Hwy 34 meet. Dominical is a very popular destination with nice beaches, some surfing, and a small shopping area that caters to tourists primarily. It has a nice restaurant where we had vegan lunches a few times on the trip, and an ice cream store with great vegan ice cream, much enjoyed on hot days there. From Dominical it is only a 20 minute drve to Tinamaste near Jean and Alan’s farm. The alternative route to Tinamaste from San Jose is on the Pan American Highway that winds through the mountains making for a completely different experience. More on that later.
On the drive our first major stop was at the bridge over the Tarcoles River, famous as a place to see American Crocodiles near Parque Nacional Carara.
Here we saw the first of many Scarlet Macaws on the trip. They are awesome birds, with a voice even louder than their red, yellow, blue and colors. I got to show Marian how to differentiate juvenile Little-blue Herons from the other white herons there, and it was a nice break on the ride. Wood Stork, King Vulture and Yellow-headed Caracaras were the highlights of from-the-car-backseat birding as we drove the rest of the way to Jean and Alan’s farm, that they call Finca Tres Rios, i.e. Three Rivers Farm.
This was to be our home base for most of the rest of our visit. It is a hectare of land on a hill in what was previously a cattle pasture. It is down a 2-3 kilometer bumpy dirt road out of Tinamaste, which is midway from San Isidro to Domincal on Hwy 243, the main road from the Pan American Highway to the coast at Dominical. We stayed in a cute little Airbnb across the dirt road from Jean’s place, where the owner had just built two cottages for rent. My son and his girlfriend rented one, and we had the other. The great thing, besides the nesting Fiery-billed Aracaris and the constantly calling Slaty-tailed Trogons on the property was the pool. It was really hot there, at only about 250 meters elevation, and located in a valley between two taller foothill ranges to the Crodillera de Talamanca Mountain Range to the northeast, where it was modestly humid and quite warm. The dry season, when it tends to be hotter was just ending as we got ready to leave, and we had no rain at all until our last few days there when the afternoon cloudburst pattern started.
Birding at Finca Tres Rios was best in the morning, from about sunrise, more or less 6:30 AM until about 8:30 AM. Getting up was no problem as the Howler Monkeys started up about 4:30-5 AM most days, and by 5:45 the dawn chorus was in full swing. Still, few birds started moving until later, and I often got out by 6, only to see little for the first 45 minutes or so. Eventually I learned a few songs, especially Riverside Wren, Baird’s and Slaty-tailed Trogon, Yellow-throated and Fiery-billed Trogon, Great Tinamu, and a few others, but rarely saw any birds until after sunrise.
In San Jose I bought a couple of hummingbird feeders, and we put them up when we got to Jean’s. It took a week or so, but after a while Long-billed Hermit and Scaly-breasted Hummingbird became the frequent visitors with occasional visits by Rufous-tailed and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Our best birding experiences by far where when I arranged guides for single and multiple day trips. The first guide I arranged came about in a round-about fashion. I contacted Patrick O’Donnell, who had been my guest o TBBP Episode #65, who suggested that I use Johan Chaves who is located near Quepos. Johan has had to take a regular job during the Covid-19 pandemic, so was unavailable and referred me to Carlos Ureña in San Isidro. I managed to reach Carlos and arrange to be his first client since before the pandemic. He arranged to take us to some high elevation areas near Cerro de la Muerte. You have to love the name, which translates to “Hill of Death” named for some travelling merchants who froze to death on a trip to the market in San José. It is a great birding area, at a seriously high elevation of about 3450M. We met Carlos in San Isidro at 6 AM, and headed towards the mountains with me driving the Subaru Outback that I had shipped to Jean a year earlier. The Pan American Hwy from San Isidro to the high mountains is an exciting drive, a well maintained but narrow 2 lane road with nearly no shoulders and many near-hairpin turns that is very steep in places, leading to an urge/ need to pass on corners when approaching a slow moving or at times stopped truck.
Our first stop was at a road to the communication towers at the top of Cerro de la Muerte. Besides the “fresh” air, near freezing, fabulous vistas, low shrubbey above timberline made for easy birding. We got great looks at several high elevation specialties including Timberline Wren, Volcano Hummingbird, Black-capped Flycatcher, Sooty-capped Chlorospingus, Large-footed Finch (seriously large feet), Sooty Thrush, and Black-billed Nightingale Thrush. I started our eBird list there at 7:54 AM, so it was less than 2 hours from downtown San Isidro to the area.
I specifically asked Carlos for a day of more birding and less driving, and he took this to heart. I made only one other eBird list for the day, at San Gerardo de Dota, Quetzal Valley. It was a 6 ½ hour list and was fabulous birding. We made a quick stop at a small soda, the local name for a family-owned small eatery, where for the price of a nice juice we watched the feeders, getting great looks at many Flame-colored Tanagers, Blue-and-white Swallows, Flame-throated Tanager, a few hummingbirds and many Acorn Woodpeckers. Interestingly oaks are the predominant tree in the whole high-elevation area, and Acorn Woodpeckers are abundant.
We spent the rest of the day at a high-end resort using their trails. This is the location of the QREC, the Quetzal Education Research Center as well as a nice restaurant and resort. For the price of lunch, we also got to drive to a location up the hill, and from there get a truck ride to the top of the trail system, allowing us to hike back down on a several mile loop trail. I won’t try to describe it is detail, but it was really birdy, a well maintained but at times steeply up and down trail, and at >3000M elevation. Highlights were a couple of mixed flocks with 20+ species. I especially loved Long-tailed Silky Flycatchers which at one time lined the whole top of a nearby tree, maybe 12 birds, along with just lots of great looks at species like Collared Redstart, Black-cheeked Warbler, Golden-browed Chloropsingus, Ochraceios Wren, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, and many more.
By lunch, about 2 PM, Marian said uncle, and laid back to watch the hummingbird feeders while Carlos took me on a walk along the main road. We added one of my favorite birds of the trip, a tiny flycatcher that catches catch bugs from rocky perches in raging streams, hence their name, Torrent Tyranulet. By about 4 PM I said enough too, and we headed for San Isidro, with a few roadside stops on the way back to the highway hoping for a better look at the Resplendent Quetzal. While I drove up the hillside behind the resort Carlos spotted a perched young male quetzal on a branch over the road just as I drove under it. As I backed up to get a look it flew, so my only look was as it flew away. We heard quetzals a few times on the hike, but never got another look. A BVD bird for my list, for Better-view-desired.
A couple of days later Carlos took us on an overnight trip to the coast, with highlights of a stop at the Rice Fields near Playa el Rey. We were amazed as we drove on a farm road through a Palm Oil farm, at the workers carrying a pruning saw on a 50 foot long pole over their shoulders as they rode around on bicycles. Of course the Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Southern Lapwing, Mangrove Cuckoo, White-throated Crake, Northern Jacana, Prothonatory Warbler, Dickcissel, and the rest of the 60 species there were pretty cool too.
From here we drove north to our destination PN Carara. Several stops on the way were good birding, and near the park a fellow on a motorcycle pulled Carlos over, with a friendly in Spanish, Do you remember me? Carlos did not, but this fellow keeps track of a pair of local Black-and-white owls, so he took us to their roost for a small tip. Later we got twilight looks at Pacific Screech owls at another local stakeout stop.
We spent the night at a local resort, and the next day birded PN Carara and a roadside mangrove swamp. The birding at the park was great, and made for another great trip.
Carlos had his first major trip since Covid set for the next day, and was gone for the rest of our stay, so later in the trip I arranged for a 2-night stay at the Talari Mountain Lodge in the foothills just outside of San Isidro. The owner promised to arrange a guide for us there, and came through nicely. All of the local guides there have had to take regular jobs in the pandemic, but Andres Chinchilla is a great local guide who had just taken a job at a local Kombucha factory from 1 PM until 11 PM. He agreed to take us out both mornings, and did a great job. The first morning we birded the Talari grounds and then went to a feeder setup, primarily used by photographers, just outside PN Chirripo. It is in the cloud forest, on the side of a steep ravine, and the owner has a fabulous feeder setup, which you can watch from the shade of his veranda. We got some of the best looks at hummingbirds of the trip there, including Garden and White-tailed Emeralds, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, Violet Saberwing, and Green-crowned Brilliant. A Red-headed Barbet was the photographers favorite, but I had trouble not favoring the Red-faced Spinetail and the hummingbirds.
One of the cool things about this stop was that we met Carlo’s older brother. Carlos’ older brother started a birding guide business when Carlos was young. When he was old enough to drive, Carlos became the drive and helper on his big brother’s tours. Apparently he became quite proficient, because when he was about 21 his brother informed him one day that the next week he was leading a tour, as he had double booked himself. Carlos said he was terrified, but did it, and did it well enough that the client has requested him for several later trips. He has now been guiding for close to 18 years.
On the next day we visited Los Cusingos, the home and now wildlife preserve of the god father of Costa Rica birding, Alexander Skutch. We saw our first army-ant swarm there, along with lots more great birds, and again Andres did a great job of getting us looks at everything.
For the trip I listed 295 species, of which 134 were lifers, and all were enjoyed. Until next time. Good birding and good day.
The Bird Banter Podcast #97 with Jordan Boersma Additional Info.
Jordan Boersma has chosen one of the more remote and exotic areas of the world to do his PhD field work, Papua New Guinea. In preparing for the conversation with Jordan I learned that Papua New Guinea has the worlds lowest (or at least one of the lowest) percentages of people living in urban centers (13.25% in 2019) and its citizens speak over 850 known languages. Most of the about 8 million people living in the country live in what are known as “customary communities” meaning they are ruled in accordance with their customs, as opposed to by statutory rules of a government, usually one imposed by colonization. In short it is a place untamed by much of the rest of the world, and where the infrastructure to easily do traditional research is not easily available. Things like electricity and running water are not available where Jordan is doing his research. It was really fun to hear his stories. I hope you enjoy them too.
White-shouldered Fairywrens are a small bird of the open fields of Papua New Guinea. You’ll hear lots more about them from Jordan on the episode.
Ice worms are another topic we discuss. I can wait to ask Peter Wimberger from episode #30 more about these next time I see him. They are tiny worms that live their whole lives at temperatures very close to that of ice, i.e. zero degrees Celsius. They cannot tolerate extended periods much above or below freezing, somehow don’t freeze themselves despite as a worm obviously being cold-blooded. (do they have blood?) They appear to be a significant source of nutrition for the Gray-crowned Rosy Finches breeding on Mt. Rainier near the glaciers where they live.
Please leave comments or suggestions for future guests if any come to mind.
Until next time; Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #96 with Neil Paprocki Additional Info
Neil Paprocki is a raptor researcher studying for his PhD at the University of Idaho. You can follow him on both Twitter and Instagram. He is studying the movements of Rough-legged Hawks primarily in his PhD work, using geolocators on the hawks to track their annual journeys from breeding in the Arctic to wintering in mostly the lower 48.
I always love getting my fix of RLHA both at the Skagit and Sammish Flats and on Eastern Washington trips in winter. Rarely we get them in the south Puget Sound area. When one is sighted in Pierce County it is much chased by we county listers.
On the episode Neil talks about the two primary types of geolocators used on these hawks, the type that gives near real-time location using satelite communication, and the type that uses cell tower communication for uploads of data, meaning the researchers only get data when the birds are in cell range, i.e. for RLHAs not really on their breeding grounds.
Neil has also worked with the California Condor reintroduction and monitoring project with the Peregrine Fund. These are spectacular birds. I first saw them soon after their reintroduction from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but got my first listable condor at Pinnacles National Park in California. These are spectacular birds, gigantic, and unmistakable. I cannot find my photos of these birds quickly now, but here is a link to my eBird list with photos.
Neil has also worked with Hawk Watch International, as a biologist. Hawk Watch International has a wonderful network of sites staffed by professional hawk watchers and counters placed along the flyways of raptors where at many of these birders can visit and watch the migratory spectacle for ourselves. I have limited experience at hawk watch sites, really just at Cape May and at the Butler Mountain site in New York. I hope to spend more time at these wonderful sites in years to come.
Thanks for reading and listening.
Good birding. Good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #95 with Eric Heisey Additional Info.
Peter Wimberger, a Tacoma friend, UPS professor, birder and prior guest on episode 30 referred my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #95 Eric Heisey is my guest. Eric is a recent graduate of Guelph University in Ontario, Canada where he did research at the Ryan Norris lab on Savannah Sparrows, working primarily on an island in the Bay of Fundy with the advantages of a fairly stable population as many islands do, making study of the population more reasonable.
Eric is actively birding one of the most beautiful areas of Washington this winter during the pandemic. The Methow Valley is a spectacular place year around, and in winter is a cross-country skiing paradise. The birding there is pretty great too, with easy access to not just winter specialties in town like Common Redpoll, Bohemian Waxwing and Pine Grosbeak, but an easy day of birding on the Waterville Plateau, along with lots of places near the several rivers that course through the area.
For a taste of the birding in these areas see my birding post on our winter trip there this past January.
You can reach out to Eric by email heiseyew-at- email-dot-com
Please leave a comment and review and review
Thanks. Good birding and good day!
Birding the Area Near the Talari Mountain Lodge
Marian and I took a 3-day 2-night trip to an area just uphill from San Isidro over the last 3 days. It was nice to get off on our own for a few days, really nice to get out birding with a great local guide, Andres Chinchilla, and finding lots of new birds was really fun.
On Thursday we drove to an Quebradas, an area described in our Finding Birds in Costa Rica book as good birding with steep trails. The steep trails part was highly descriptive, and we barely scratched the surface of the area. I struggled to ID and find birds, but we did ID one legitimate Costa Rica bird, Slaty Antwren. Our list was only 7 species, but honestly we spent most of the time looking down at the very steep, at times slippery and difficult trails. Scenery with a rushing river, dense jungle, and lots of fauna was really nice.
After our trek there we found a great little bakery for lunch, where we sat, cooled down and had a nice relaxing lunch before going to the Talari Mountain Lodge.
The lodge is quite a place. I agree with the guidebook describing it as a great place for beginning tropical birders. The grounds are heavily planted with fruiting plants, the feeders well stocked, the deck a great place to bird from, and overall an easy place to get good looks at relatively common birds. Lots of photographers like the place, but our first day we were the only guests, Friday several more joined us including a couple from the SE U.S. who are annual visitors to the American tropics.
Friday Andres met us about 7:30, and we birded Talari for 55 minutes, listing 41 species including Smoky-brown Woodpecker, White-winged Becard, and Stripe-tailed Hummingbird. From there we went to a fabulous feeder setup just above the entrance to Parque Nacional Chirripo.
The owner Rolando has a great hummingbird feeder setup along with a fruit feeder, nice plantings, and a short trail down into a canyon. It was a great place for really good looks at the birds we saw, 36 species in total, but 11 lifers, essentiall all with very good looks, many with photos. IMO the best birds were Red-headed Barbet, Red-faced Spinetail, insanely colorful Violet Saberwings, Garden Emerald, Speckled, Golden-hooded and Silver-throaed Tanagers, and Scarlet-thighed Dacnis. It’s a place that could serve cervasa, and charge by the hour. Instead it is 2000 colones to park (about $3.20 USD) and a treat to the senses.
Today we got mixed up directions from Carlos, the owner/operator of the lodge. He arranged for us to use Andres again today to visit Cusingos, but didn’t tell Andres until this AM (he works an evening shift at a Kombuchca factory in Covid times) and didn’t tell us to meet him at Cusingos not at the lodge. This led to not getting to Cusingos until about 7:55 and missing the best 2 hours of the day for birding. Still a great day and really cool place. The famous and late-great Dr. Alexander Skutch bouth ther property there in 1941 (Andres says 75 hectacres for $10. USD) and rehabilited what was a cow pasture into what is now a second growth rain-forest. It is price as CR places go with a $20./ person USD entry fee, but has a nice gift shop, good easy trails, and great birds. In 3 1/4 hours there we saw 56 species including lots of lifers, with more great looks at great birds.
Highlights for me were a much better looks at Scaled Pigeon than we had at Talari early this AM, soaring Double-toothed, Short-tailed and Broad-winged Hawks, Russet Antshrike, Bicolored Antbird, three species of manakins, Rufous Spadebill, Rufous Piha, Golden-crowned Spadebill, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Golden-winged Warbler, Gray-headed and Bay-headed Tanagers, and maybe coolest of all an army-ant swarm. These ants are just tenacions, with a column maybe 100 ants wide steadily marching along just climbing over and past anything in their way.
We managed great looks without any bites, which Andres describes as “very strong.” An experience I did not regret avoiding.
We finished with a road overlooking a big farm, with nice looks at a Mourning Warbler, and more looks at previously seen species. We finished around noon, made a couple of errand stops in San Isidro coming home, and cooled off in the pool here.
A nice trip. I finished the trip with a CR list now of 308, 295 so far on this trip, 138 lifers, and so far feeling like I’m getting better if not at all good at birding here.
Rest tomorrow, to San Isidro Monday for Covid testing to allow us to fly home Thursday, a mangrove swamp boat ride Tuesday, then off to San Jose Wednesday for a flight to Florida Thursday. The trip is winding down and I feel like it has been a huge success in all regards.
Good birding.
Ed
The Bird Banter Podcast #94 with Jon Anderson Additional Info.
Jon Anderson is a hard guy to miss on a birding trip. He is a big guy with a big moustache who is not shy about joining in any conversation, enjoys both birding and birders. Jon has been a birder for decades, but has been more active since his retirement a few years ago. We talk a bit about what he calls his Perigrination, defined as, “a journey, especially a long or meandering one.” This nicely and humourously describes Jon’s year, which he journals on his blog, “Peregrination.” In addition to his biggish year of birding after retirement we talk about his birding story and his career with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Here is an article on the Caspian Tern Relocation Project we talked about.
Here is the Westport Seabirds website.
Jon helps with field trips for WOS, and here is the WOS field trips page.
You can contact
Jon by email festuca-at-comcast-dot-net If you have ideas for guests you’d like to hear from please leave a comment or use the contact page above to reach me.
Until next time. Good birding and good day!
2-Day Trip to Parque Nacional Carara with Carlos Urena
A short dirt road toward the coast after that yielded excellent birding, including the targeted Pale-breasted Spinetail, and also great morning looks at 32 species total. Best IMO were Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, 4 White-throated Crakes, a Yellow-throated Elaenia, and Blue-black Grassquits with lots more Morelet’s Seedeaters.
Next stop was one of the trip highlights. We went to the Finca Martatima Rice Fields at Playa del Rey. The fields were mostly dry, but wet areas remained and the birding was really great.
One of my hoped for trip birds, Southern Lapwing, were in a small flock very near the road.
A very cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo posed for photos.
Isthmian Wrens, Scrub Greenlet, Tropical Pewee, , Northern Jacana, Purple Galinule, Gray-cowled Wood-rail, Green-breasted Mango, Groove-billed Ani and Wood Stork were among the list of 60 species there.
We made a trip to Boca del Rio Parrita where our only gull of the visit so far was a fly-over Lauging Gull, and a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (wow!) posed.
A few shorebirds padded my Costa Rica list, including Semi-palmated Plover, Willet, Whimbrel and Least Sandpiper, nice to see some birds I could ID.
Next was birding the road into Playa del Guacalillo. Carlos got us onto a good number of birds there, the most challenging of these was the Common Ground Cuckoo. This bird called and called, and we finally bushwhacked out to find it huddled under some branches, likely a juvenile.
Other nice finds there were:
We finished the day trying for owls after dark, really without success until I cried uncle about 7 PM and we headed for the room for the night and dinner at Villa Lapas.
The next morning we were up to bird the grounds form 6-7 before breakfast. Three species of trogons, Slaty-tailed, Black-headed and Gartered, all male and female pairs called and gave us good looks, and White-winged Becard, Piratic Flycatcher, White-necked Jacobin and Scaly-breasted Hummingbird were all lifers for me.
After breakfast we headed for Parque Nacional Carara, and spent the morning birding trails there. The birding was good, as this is the area where the dry tropical forest of the north of Costa Rica west slope meets the wet tropical forest of the areas south of the park. Birds of both areas are possible here, and we saw lots. Highlights of a 45 species list included a Great Tinamou walking silently under the trees, Baird’s Trogon,
great looks at White-whiskered Puffbirds,
male and female Black-hooded Antshrikes, Black-faced Antthrush, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Plain Xenops, Lesser Greenlet, Orange-billed Sparrow,
White-shouldered Tanager and Bay-headed Tanager.
Before heading to a mangrove area Carlos was flagged down by a local fellow who offered to show us Black-and-white Owls roosting. We followed him to an open woodlot where a short walk from the road yielded a roosting pair.
We made a fairly brief stop at a mangrove swampy area adding “Mangrove” Yellow Warbler, Tropical Gnatcatcher, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Barred Antshrike, and Northern Scrub-flycatcher.
We finished strong, driving back to a stakeout Common Potoo near Quepos. I expected a small bird looking like the end of a branch. Instead we saw a quite large bird looking like the top of a fence post. Carlos thinks it is on a nest there. It was amazing.
Overall a great 2-day trip. It is great to bird the tropics with the help of a good guide. I’m struggling to find many species I can ID otherwise, tall trees, fleeting looks, mostly new species to me, and getting to the best parts of the best areas is a challenge by myself.
Counts at the end of the trip: Costa Rica Life list: 247, CR list for this trip total: 228, and exactly 100 world lifers for the Costa Rica trip so far.
A day to recover and visit family is up for tomorrow.
Good birding.
Ed