Jonah Gula is a graduate student at Texas State University doing research on the African Saddlebill Stork. We talk about his work with African storks, his birding story and adventures, and his other field research work. I grew up in Maine near where Jonah attended Unity College, and it was good to hear his story of work there on black bears with my niece’s husband Kendall Marden.
We talk about predation of Greater Sage Grouse by raptors that are likely predated by Swainson’s Hawks. I was surprised. I checked on Birds of the World, and male Greater-sage Grouse can weight from 1.9-3.1 kg lbs, with females weighing from 900 – 1800 grams. Swainson’s Hawks weigh from 700-1300 grams. So the Swainson’s Hawks can weigh nearly as much as the smallest female Greater Sage Grouse.
Saddle-billed Storks are indeed a spectacular bird. Check out this photo in the McCauley library. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/93102161#_ga=2.37371427.2037751036.1608164645-532505861.1607311548 They stand up to 1.2 meters tall, and weigh up to 6 kg. They are boldly black-and-white with a huge red-black and yellow bill.
Here is a link to publications by Jonah.
I mentioned previous podcast episodes by Paul Bannick and Florence Reed so here are links to the blog posts for those episodes. Here is a link to the Sustainable Harvest International effort to help small farmers establish sustainable wildlife-friendly family farms.
I hope you enjoy this episode. Please leave comments with feedback, suggestions for future guests, or just to say hello.
Good birding and good day!
Author: birdbanter
A Mid December Day on the Waterville Plateau
Today Marian and I spent most of the day birding the Waterville Plateau in Douglas County, WA. This is a great winter birding place in eastern WA, known for its raptors, flocks of winter birds-of-open-country and, when it’s not foggy or snowing, beautiful days. Today met the latter criteria nicely. We are staying in Marian’s time share condo in Manson near Chelan, and so it a 35-40 minute drive up McNeil Canyon to the plateau. Most of the time when I get to bird this area it is after a drive from Pierce County, usually with our ABCbirding group, so getting their bu 8:30 AM and not getting up early was a treat. The morning was clear and overcast, really perfect visibility conditions. On the drive up onto the plateau we had a great look at a juvenile Golden Eagle who flew right overhead, at lots of Rough-legged Hawks, and got excited about a clear fog-free day ahead.
We did a more-or-less loop around much of the plateau, starting with a drive south to Mansfield, with stops at the Lamoine Windbreak for a walk all the way around the line of trees. ALmost no birds were found there, no owls, no raptors, and no sparrows so a nice walk and stretch to start the day, but fun to show Marian the area, and the snow levels were perfect. Deep enough to cover the ground, but not to make walking difficult.
Mansfield yielded little, with no partridge or falcons at the grain elevators, and I decided to explore some new roads. I drive up onto Rd. D NW northwest of Mansfield, yielded our only American Tree Sparrows of the day near a farmhouse there. I dropped the eBird pin at the spot for relocation purposes.
The rest of the day was really driving around looking for birds. We came across many 20-600 bird flocks of Horned Larks with a good mix of Snow Buntings in most of them. My guess was 3-5% of all the birds overall in these flocks were SNBU. It was fun to refamiliarize myself with their calls, and know the buntings were there before starting to look.
The Heritage Road area for LEOW was burned badly from last summer’s fires, and it does not look like a great stop going forward. We ended the day as fog rolled in near Atkin’s Lake where we found one of the two Snowy Owls Shep Thorpe had found last week. It was Marian’s first SNOW in what she thought was the wild, the Seattle bird last week seeming like a city bird to her.
We quit about 3 PM as fog started to roll in which along with loss of light made viewing really poor.
A really pretty day, with a few winter specialties but overall slow birding.
Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #84 with Larry Hubbell Additional Info.
One of the great things for me about doing this podcast is that I keep learning, or being forced to accept, about myself. I am an impatient birder, and thrive on new places, different experiences, and don’t do as well with deep exploration of the same place over and over. People have asked me why I went into family medicine instead of another specialty. I think I thrive on the variety, and like seeing different things through the day and work-live. I realize i also don’t have the patience of endurance to be a really good patch birder. I have started, after talking with Larry Hubbell on this episode, to bird the Chinese Reconciliation Project Park which is right in front of my condo, but have no illusion that I’ll stick with it like Larry has a Union Bay in Seattle.
I have tremendous respect for Larry’s work, and it was such fun to hear his story on this episode. The personal connections Larry has with friends like Marcus Roening and Dennis Paulson added to the enjoyment.
The Union Bay Natural Area and the Arboretum are top hotspots in King County. Located adjacent to the University of Washington they attract lots of local birding talent, and vagrants seem to be very frequently found there. Just this year I’ve tried for a Least Tern and a vagrant warbler there, both chases not successful.
Here are links to some of the topics we discussed on the podcast episode:
Union Bay Watch
Arboretum Creek Revitalization
The Live After Eddie Post
Marcus and Heather episode
Dennis Paulson episode
The Common Raven dropping water call- listen to the bottom recording on this page, the 23 second recording. 
Thanks for listening and reading. Please leave comments with any feedback, suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from, or whatever you’d like me to hear.
Thanks.
Good birding and good day!
WA 396th Species Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Few More Snohomish County Ticks
Today I decided to ignore the light rain, and headed with Marian to Everett to try for the apparent adult female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that has been faithfully seen in a specific tree for a couple of days. On arrival, after traffic, I noted a couple of birders looking up at a tree, and on closer approach the birder left was good friend Bruce LaBar (see episode #3 of The Bird Banter Podcast). He pointed up, I saw the bird, dashed back to the car for my camera and to fetch Marian. A few photos, a short time in the rain, and we had had enough, but WA species #396 for my life state list is in the books, or on the blog and in eBird anyway.
I see Yellow-bellied Sapsucker nearly every summer when I visit Maine. They are pretty common around the family camp at McGrath Pond, but I’ve not made a chase for the occasional one seen in WA until now. Years ago I was not really trying hard on my WA list, as I had seen them many times on the east coast, and lately the times just have not worked for me until today. One of my easier stakeout ticks.
After this Bruce and I tried for a Harris’s Sparrow that had been seen just blocks from the YBSA, but rain made it tough birding, and we only gave it a half-hearted try.
I finished the day with a couple of stops in Edmunds, the waterfront and the nearby marsh, and added 5 more Snohomish county ticks, Harlequin Duck, Black Scoter, Brandt’s Cormorant, Black Turnstone and Surfbird. Lunch in the Panera Bread drive through and an easy drive home before traffic made for a great day of birding in Snohomish County.
Good birding and very good day!
An Outdoor Family Gathering in Leavenworth, WA with Great Birds
Marian and I drove to visit two of her sisters and her niece at Carol’s house in Leavenworth. Soon after we arrived, Carol asked what the little white bird in the top of a pine tree might be. After I located it, and initially misidentified it as a N. Saw Whet Owl, we figured it out to be a Northern Pygmy Owl. Cool for Marian who has heard them several times this year but this was a visual first for her, and a great yard bird for Carol.
This was a two pygmy species day, with Pygmy Nuthatches also at the feeder, though the pair of male and female White-headed Woodpeckers definately overshadowed the nuthatches.
A fun afternoon and good way to pass another day in Covid times. We spent most of the afternoon outdoors, at social distance, taking turns warming up at the fire.
Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #83 with Matt Bartels additional info.
The making of a county birder is really the birding story of Matt Bartels. Matt is a Seattle birder, the WA Bird Records Committee Secretary, one of just 2 birders to have seen 200 species of birds in each of Washington’s 30 counties, and really nice guy who is my guest on the Bird Banter Podcast #83.
Matt didn’t really start actively birding until his young adult years, and he fell for the county listing bug from the get-go. Hearing his birding story is really the story of his county listing.
Matt also contributes to the WA birding community in many ways. He helps with the Marymoor Bird Walk along with Michael Hobbs and Brian Bell.
Matt has served as the WA Bird Records Committee, a key part of the Washington Ornithological Society, and as Brad Waggoner, a prior guest told me, carries the heavy load of getting the committee’s work done, recorded, and made public.
On the episode we talk about two birds the committee discussed in detail at the recent annual meeting. For fun here are links to information about the species involved:
Nazca Booby vs Masked Booby
Northern Giant Petrel vs Southern Giant Petrel
As you can tell the differences are subtle.
We talk about county listing as a pursuit. It can be fun, and a way to challenge yourself to explore your state more intentionally. I have had lots of fun in the last couple of years trying to find new species in all of the WA counties. This really began for me with a 4 day winter trip with Ken Brown (guest on episode 2), Ryan Weise and Bryan Hansen. This was to “get rid of the gray” on our eBird profile pages. At the time the WA map on eBird showed all the counties of WA with color coding for the number of species you have recorded on eBird in each county. A gray color denoted zero species recorded. All of us had birded Asotin, Columbia and Garfield counties at least a little, but all were before we started keeping rocords on eBird, so a trip in Jan 2019 added color to the Southeast part of our WA profiles. Read about the trip on the ABC Birding blog. Since then I have made trips to several WA counties, seen birds, roads and scenery I’d not seen before, and am starting to learn lots more about Washington State.
Here are some trip report links if anyone is interested.
Thurston County last week
Two reports on a recent winter eastern WA trip to Spokane, Lincoln, Ferry, and Whitman Counties.
Southwest WA County Birding this fall
Chelan in summer
These are just examples of the fun to be had chasing county birds in WA.
So much fun hearing Matt’s story, so until next time, Good birding and good day!
A Nice Morning Birding Thurston County
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and today was an unexpectedly beautiful day. I headed to Thurston County to look for some winter birds for my county list, and to see some different areas from the usual Pierce haunts.
First stop was at Tolmie State Park where early AM sunshine, light at my back, and calm water yielded great baywatching, and I saw all 3 loons, Pacific was a new county bird, and a distant Rhinoceros Aucklet was too. All fall huge flocks of Pine Siskins have been in the area, and today was no different, with a
Next stop was a new area for me, the McLane Creek Nature Trails, where no new Thurston birds were found, though I listened and looked for Red Crossbills and Hermit Thrush in good habitat. It is a really beautiful spot, with well maintained and lightly used trails. Check out the Wood Ducks, Gadwall and the pond itself.
I finished the day with two stops near the capital in Olympia, getting Barrow’s Goldeneye at KGY Point (named for the radio station there I think) and Western and Herring Gulls on the north pool of Capital Lake. 56 Canvasbacks were the only filter-busting species there. No rain all AM, and a nice outing with 5 new Thurston birds, ending the day at 164 for the county life list.
Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #82 with Paul Bannick additional information
It seemed appropriate that the day after talking with Paul Bannick for The Bird Banter Podcast #82 Marian and I got a chance to see the Snowy Owl that has been roosting on rooftops in a Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle for a week or so. It brought to mind the studies done a few years ago about the Snowy Owls in the big invasion year, and how they often hunt sea ducks at night. Maybe this owl is hunting ducks on the nearby Green Lake at night, probably easy picking, and doing just fine in this urban setting.
Snowy Owls are such an iconic bird, and I am looking forward to seeing and reading Paul Bannick’s new book on the life history of Snowy Owls as well as the book on Great Gray Owls. I saw my WA first Great Gray Owl this year when Mike Denny took Ken Brown and me to a site to find them and we sat and recorded The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63 with Mike Denny sitting on the side of a logging road as recently fledged Great Gray Owls walked on branched very nearby.
On this episode Paul talks about his conservation work for Conservation Northwest, about the wildlife corridors they are working to create, and about newly reintroduced species like Gray Wolves, Wolverine and Fisher. I feel like I better understand the I-90 wildlife bridges that we see on our trips to E WA.
I’ve had other photographers on the podcast in the past, including Dorian Anderson, Nate Chappell and most recently with Idaho birder and photographer Darren Clark.
Please leave comments and give me feedback about this episode, the podcast in general, or if you have thoughts por suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from.
Until next time: Good birding and good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #81 with Florence Reed and Patrick McMillan
This episode is a bit different than some others as I talk with Florence Reed of Sustainable Harvest International and Patrick McMillan, a longtime birder, and recently retired Clemson University professor about how small family agroforestry farms can have real and significant impact on the environment and migratory birds on their wintering grounds.
Maybe the most eye opening moment of the conversation was when I asked if this type of farming was only for local use or could it be scaled to “feed the world.” Florence gently informed me that these small family farms are already feeding far more of the world than are giant monocrop forms run by huge international corporations using unsustainable techniques that require increasingly intense use of harmful pesticides and deplete the soil. My assumption that most of the world goes to the supermarket for their food, rather than the family garden was obviously my ignorance, bias and self-centered thinking in action.
Helping these family farms and farmers grow more food, a healthier mix of diet and do it in a long-term sustainable way makes so much sense to me. The added benefit that our neotropic migrants have more and healthier habitat for much of their life cycle is frosting on the cake.
Habitat is the key to bird populations. Birders know that habitat protection, improvement and restoration is a key to protecting our birds. Patrick speaks to this eloquently when he talks about the changes he helped institute in the Clemsen Botanical Gardens. Changing the focus of the area to more native plants and more wild type areas almost doubled the number of species seen there in less than a decade.
On an earlier episode Dennis Paulson talks about the loss of the shrub-steppe habitat in the Lower Columbia area within his lifetime. Grasslands in general are probably the most threatened habitat in the world. They are exactly the areas where it is most profitable to convert to agriculture, and have largely been converted. The small farmers that Florence and Patrick talk about are using remaining land that is less desirable to large commercial farming, and yet can do it effectively and sustainably to feed their family while helping the environment and the birds.
Here is a link to the Heronswood Garden in Kitsap County, WA where Patrick is now working.
I have learned and become interested in these issues in part because my daughter Jean (see episode #41) and her husband Alan have dedicated their lives to these causes, so they matter to me. Check out the organization Jean works with, Jungle Project, to learn more.
Let me know if you enjoyed this episode, if you have other topics you’d like to hear about, or have suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from.
Until next time. Good birding and Good Day!
Eastern Washington Early Winter Trip Days 3-4
The third day of the trip was without a doubt the toughest day of the trip from a weather and finding birds standpoint. We headed south from Spokane hoping to go to Steptoe Butte and bird around the Rock Lake area. Whitman County is another area I’d not birded much at all in the winter birding timeframe (I know it’s really autumn, but in the birding year migration is mostly past, and the winter residents are largely in place for the winter) and so I had hopes of finding most of the available wintering water birds, as well as a variety of land birds. We headed south in pretty heavy snow. By the time we got to the turnoff from Hwy 905 in Cheney it was really snowing heavily. We continued past Turnbull and got to the overlook to the Whitman Quarry Pond, but couldn’t really find a good overlook, and headed to the south end of Rock Lake. When we got there it was more a freezing rain and pretty stiff wind, and there were almost no waterfowl on the lake. The only duck was Bufflehead, but Black-billed Magpie and Belted Kingfisher made for a disappointing 3 county lifers.
The weather remained really difficult, so instead of trying for Steptoe Butte we drove to Pullman hoping for a FOY Washington Blue Jay. On the drive there we didn’t see a Rough-legged Hawk, expected by me, but did see a flock of about 18 Snow Buntings as they lifted off the road in front of us and flew into the wheat stubble and disappeared. 13 individual BLJAs had been seen the day prior, but no luck for us. It was my first visit to WSU, and in a couple of hours poking around we did add Mourning Dove and Cooper’s Hawk on campus, and another 7 first county species at the Pullman-Koppei Community Gardens by a small creek in town. Great looks at Lesser Goldfinch was probably the highlight.
We tried for Steptoe Butte in the afternoon as the weather cleared, but the access road was blocked by a gate, so this ended a pitiful day of birding.
Saturday was the day to drive home, and I decided to try for a few winter Ferry County birds on the trip home. We drove to the Keller Ferry, with a short stop at the Reardon Ponds on the way. Nothing there, but it was a beautiful cold clear day. We tried the Davenport Cemetery on the way, but it was blowing a gale, and very few birds were found, despite really trying for an owl in the trees.
By the time we got to the Lincoln County end of the Keller Ferry the wind had died down, and it was spectacular. The Eastern WA ferry system is a free, on-demand ferry system every 20 or so miles along the Columbia River, letting people cross without building little used bridges. We were the only car on board, and I managed to see Horned Grebes on the Ferry side for a county first. The only birding we did was on the Swawilla Basin Road loop, from just above the ferry, through the basin, and up to join the Manilla Creek Road just east of the Coulee Dam. My car’s navigation system suggested to look as a better option than retracing our way back to the ferry area, so I forged ahead. The birding was passable, adding Gray Partridge, and a number of small passerines including Horned Lark and Bewick’s Wren to my Ferry life list, but the road got sketchy and pretty steeply uphill in the last 2-3 miles. I took over driving from Marian half way through the loop, and was glad it was me not her that got us stopped on the icy steep two-track detour around a washed out main road part way up the hill. With some backing up and trying again a few times I managed to skid the way up the hill and we made it without help, but it was really dicey for a while. Memory accomplished.
My goal was to push my county lists over 100 in Spokane and Lincoln Counties, and closer in Whitman and Ferry. This was done, ending at 102 for Spokane, 101 for Lincoln, but only 89 for Ferry (minimal effort) and 71 for Whitman (weather obstructed effort).
Overall a nice get away. The Hampton Inn & Suites in Spokane was great, clean easy and affordable.