I have met Matt Yawney in the field a few times. Each time left me with new respect for Matt as a birder and as a really nice guy. One of the first times I met Matt was on a visit to Bassett Park in Washtucna, WA. This is a quite small town in eastern WA, and Matt had found an uncommon eastern wood warbler there the day prior. I don’t recall which warbler, but I do remember Matt spending some time looking around the park with me, and seeing and hearing lots of other migrants in the trees.
Later in 2018 Matt was doing a Grant County big year, and we communicated when Ken Brown and I were birding fall migration in the area. Ken and I located a Short-billed Dowicher at Potholes Park and a Pacific Golden Plover at Perch Point, and helped get Matt onto these two species he needed for his year list.
At the last WOS Conference in Moses Lake Matt led a field trip to Northrop Canyon that included many other stops. He was a really fine trip leader, and again we were all impressed and pleased at his low-key but high energy birding leadership on his home turf.
Grant County is a fairly rural county, with less than 90,000 people in the 2010 census, but has a nice list of birds. There are 339 species on the Grant County Checklist on WABirds.com and Matt has seen 286 species on his eBird list. I don’t know of anyone with a list that approaches Matt in the county. The closest on eBird is Gina Sheridan with 245, and on the WA Birder site Randy Hill has 264 posted. `
I especially enjoyed Matt talking about really working the expected migrant spots in the key times of the year. This sounded a lot like when I talked with Kimball Garrett on episode 71 and he talked about knowing the geography, the vagrancy patterns, and the expected local birds as keys to finding uncommon vagrants.
Here are some links that relate to topics discussed on the episode:
Matt’s eBird Profile page
The WABirder Page.
The episode of The Bird Banter Podcast with Ryan Rodriguez
The Bird Banter Podcast with Kimball Garrett
Here is a cool article with more info on Arctic Tern migration.
Until next time. Good birding. Good day!
Author: birdbanter
Birding Since Return from Chelan
A bit of catch up here since it’s been about 3 weeks since I got back from a week at Chelan. It’s been mostly about shorebirds and sound-watching in Pierce County since then, as the juvenile shorebirds are moving through, and we are starging to get jaegers back. So here are the highlights of the fall migration recently.
In the first week back I tried a couple of times for Sanderling at Chamber’s Bay Beach Access, but had no luck until the next Friday when I managed to find one on a walk with Marian.
While I was there I got a text about a Baird’s Sandpiper at Levee Pond, and dashed there, where just after I got there Bruce joined Marian and me to look at this bird.
This made for a nice 2-FOY Pierce birds in a day.
The day prior to getting these two species I joined the Theler Wetlands walk with Fay, Diane, Ken and John R. for a nice morning there. I managed three Mason firsts, Merlin, Bushtit and Ring-necked Pheasant. This is the only one with a photo.
A couple of days later, Aug. 30th brought a sighting of Black Phoebe at the 56th St Stormewater area, and Marian and I got there just before dark, and with patience (I had tried without patience earlier in the day) we spotted not just the BLPH but also a Sora.
The next great bird was at the McNeil Overlook where after Marcus and I searched for a while, Heather on taking over their scope almost immediately spotted these two Marbled Godwits.
Though distant you can get a feel for the pretty spectacular light for the great distance. Their warm brownish color just popped.
Just after I left them for Marcus to finish his conference call, they called me to say that they had a Heermann’s Gull. It has flown out of sight before I got back and I missed this one.
Since then seawatching, mostly from Dune’s Peninsula has dominated the Pierce County birding scene. Parasitic Jaegers have moved in to take advantage of the lingering Caspian Terns. On Sept 5th I was tied up recording an episode of the podcast when the text chain alerted us of Will, Marcus and Heather having THIRTEEN PAJAs from Dunes. After I finished the episode I dashed over and managed to see just two of them, still one was a nice close fly-by.
Shortly after this Heermann’s Gull flew right in front of us to give another 2-FOY Pierce birds.
Nothing new since then, but yesterday was a really pretty morning at 56th St and the light was perfect for some photos.
More Information about The Bird Banter Podcast #73 with Jason Fidorra
I had so much fun talking with Jason Fidorra on this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast. Jason has a cool birding story, and lives and works in a unique area of Washington. It was great to hear him talk about the shrub-steppe habitat and its challenges and cool aspects, and about his journey from beginning birder to passionate and skilled birder. He talks about a July county birding challenge in his local counties too, a great idea any of us could emulate.
You can find Jason on Facebook.
He moderates Tri-cities Birders on Facebook too.
I mention Andy Stepnewski on the podcast, so here is a link to a writeup about Andy’s talk to ABC Birding.
I hope you enjoyed the episode. Until next time. Good birding and Good Day!
Additional Info on The Bird Banter Podcast #72 with Kimball Garrett
I had so much fun talking with Kimball Garrett on this episode. Kimball is a rich source of history, birding information, and great perspective for me. I hope you enjoy the episode. We talk about L.A. County birding. For perspective here is a link to Kimball’s eBird profile where you can check out his recent birding. (see the comment below by Kimball re eBird vs. the actual accepted LA County lists. eBird encourages birders to submit findings of escapees and other non-listable birds seen in the field. This is good for their database, but is annoying to some of us who use eBird as our record keeping tool for our lists.) Here is where you can find him on the L.A. Natural History Museum webpage.
Kimball was a primary author on the book he mentions just briefly on Birds of Southern California at the ABA affiliated Buteo Books.
I mention a fabulous pelagic trip I took out of San Diego. Here is a link to the source for that trip.
Several of my previous guests are friends of Kimball or are mentioned on the episode. Here are some links to those episodes.
John Sterling from Episode #10 recommmended Kimball as a guest and was a member of the group of young California birders we discuss briefly.
I talk about the passion David Irons has for bird status and distrubution. He was a great guest on Episode #58.
Bruce LaBar, another of the young California generation of birders was my guest on Episode #3.
Thanks for reading and listening. Good Birding. Good Day!
A Week at Lake Chalan in August
A week in Chelan in mid August may not be the most popular birding location in WA, but that was the time for Marian’s time share this year, and a chance to get out of Dodge for a week, explore some new roads, and spend hot afternoons in the lake seems too good to pass up. I managed to get in some good county birding too.
On the trip over I stopped at a dirt road pull out near Liberty hoping for some new Kittitas County lifers, but by the time we got there it was late morning, over 90 degrees, and things were really quiet. Two species, but hearing and seeing Red Crossbills high in the pines was fun.
From there we headed towards Chelan with our only stop enroute at Entiat at the city park on the lake, hoping for shorebirds. The park was packed with people, and devoid of shorebird habitat and birds.
Sunday morning though we decided to beat the heat, and got up and drove up the road to Chelan Butte, starting birding there at daybreak, about 5:56 AM. It was a really nice morning. State FOY Dusky Grouse were on the roadside, Lewis’s Woodpeckers were all over the place, a pair of playful Gray Flycatchers gave a great show, and Sharp-shinned Hawk and Olive-sided Flycatcher were also first Chelan County birds. The road gets really steep near the top, fun to drive and the vistas from the butte are spectacular.
A quick stop at Chelan Falls Park again looking for shorebirds yielded none, but added Caspian Tern to my Chelan list. It is a nice park, and on a weekday early could be a good stop for passerines and water birds.
Maybe the best birding day was Monday, when we again got up early and headed up into the highlands out of Entiat. The first stop was great, just a mile or so up the Entiat River Road on the abandoned old road beside the river (Lake Entiat). Bullock’s Orioles, Gray Catbirds and a Yellow-breasted Chat were highlights, but we had a list of 23 species and lots of numbers. A Lazuli Bunting was singing like crazy but refused to give us a look.
From there we drove up the Entiat River Road, with stops by rocky cliffs, and by orchards to see what we could find. Western Bluebirds put on a show, along with California Quail just everywhere. When we got to FR 5300 (Mud Creek Road), a route described in the WA Bird Finding guide, the ride up the hill went through nice riparian habitat down low, then pine forest higher. FOY White-breasted Nuthatches were nice, along with several stops for flocks coming in nicely to Pygmy Owl imitation whistles. Red Crossbills were very common, and Cassin’s and Red-eyed Vireos, MacGilvary’s Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and a nice look at a Great-horned Owl that flew right in front of us then perched for looks and photos highlighted the drive. Instead of going further up the Entiat River Road we decided to enjoy the morning cool and just do this road slowly and enjoy it. 32 species including 6 Chelan County firsts were really great.
The rest of the week we had Marian’s daughter visit and so birded a bit less. I did get up to the Waterville Plateau hoping for shorebirds in Douglas County. The supposed flooded field on Heritage Road was not flooded, but Atkin’s Lake was great. I fought the sun a bit in the morning as the only good viewing was from the west looking east, but got great looks very close up at county first Baird’s Sandpipers, distant looks at Wilson’s Phalarope and Long-billed Dowichers, and very distant looks at about 1400 dabbling ducks, most too far and too backlit to ID, but fun to try.
The last fun bird of the trip was a pair of Common Nighthawks that put on a show over the lawn behind the Wapato Point condo we stayed in on Friday night.
A quick stop at Confluence Stat Park in Wenachee on the way home yielded no shorebirds or much else, and we got home safely.
Supplemental Notes on The Bird Banter Podcast #71 Ed on Birding Resources
On The Bird Banter Podcast #71 I talk in detail about resources birders, both experienced and beginners, can use to get more enjoyment out of their birding, to learn to better find and identify birds they see, and about my own progression from beginner to a more experienced and proficient birder today. Here are links to help find some of the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy.
Episodes with great individual birding stories:
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #2 with Ken Brown
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #3 with Bruce LaBar
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #68 with Dennis Paulson
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #45 with Annie Meyer
The North American Field Guide Recommendations
Sibley Guide to the Birds second edition
The National Geographic Guide to the Birds of North America 7th edition (note I inadvertently stated that there is an 8th edition on the podcast, my mistake there.
The Birds of North America by Kenn Kauffman
Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding.
The ABA’s Guide to the Birds of Oregon by David Irons
Supplemental Bird ID guides mentioned in the podcast episode:
Pete Dunne’s Field Guide Companion Kindle Edition here. Tough to find in hardcover edition.
Hawks in Flight by Dunne, Sibley and Sutton
Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest by Dennis Paulson out of print, this link to an expensive used book on Amazon.
Oceanic Birds of the World by Howell and Zufelt
Molt in North American Birds by Howell is out of print and quite expensive used.
The Phone Bird ID apps mentioned are:
Sibley V2
iBird PRO after further research I don’t recommend buying this app as it sounds like future support could be in question.
The eBird app is described here.
The Merlin App for bird ID is described here.
This is a link to the ABA page to find any state or regional listserv for bird sightings.
I talk about Jerry Cooper’s book: Birdfinder: A Birder’s Guide to Planning North American Trips. Used copies are available inexpensively.
Please leave comments with other suggestions or advice to birders about resources you like. Thanks.
Good birding. Good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast #70 with Peter Hodum Photos and More Information
What fun for me to sit with Peter Hodum on the UPS campus and talk about his passion and work on seabird conservation both in Washington State and in the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile. Peter did his PhD work on seabirds near Antarctica, but his more recent work has been on seabird research in both Washington State and in the Juan Fernández Islands. These islands are located about 670 kilometers off the coast of Chile, and due to their remote location have a very large percentage of endemic organisms. 
Per Wikipedia 62% of the 209 species of vascular plants on the islands are endemics there. (means that they are only found there) There are no native land mammals, reptiles or amphibians on the islands, and only 17 species of land and sea birds breed on the islands, with several endemic bird species.
If you are interested in the organization supporting this research check out the Oikonos website.
Peter’s research is primarily on the seabirds of the islands, but there are super-cool passerines there too, and he shared some photos with us for this post.
The islands are named after the explorer Juan Fernández who discovered them in the 1570’s and are famous as the place where th sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned for several years in 1704. His story is believed by many to be the inspiration for the Robinson Crusoe book. Of note two of the three major islands in the archipelago are named Robinson Crusoe Island and Selkirk Island.
Enjoy.
Good Birding. Good day!
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #69 with Francisco Garcia Additional Info.
I heard about Francisco Garcia a number of times over the years when talking with Marcus Roening and Heather Ballash about their many trips to Mexico. Francisco is based in San Blas, in Nayarit, Mexico, and leads birding tours through Safaris San Blas. You can find them on Facebook @safarisanblas
It was really fun to hear about the excellent birding in the San Blas area that is accessible on relatively short drives from town, allowing a good bird list without spending long days traveling. I checked on eBird, and Francisco is the #2 eBird lister in Nayarit, Mexico, with a great life list there. His list is 473 species, and of interest to me is that Marcus and Heather are #14 & #15 with 342 and 340 species respectively. They have 640 and 619 in all of Mexico on their eBird Lists. I knew that they had birded Mexico a lot, but Wow!
Nayarit is one of the smaller Mexican states in population, with about 1.2 millinon people, and has a good portion of the Pacific Coastline of Mexico. The eBird list for Nayarit is 561 species of a total of 1099 in all of Mexico.
If you want to listen to the episode with Marcus and Heather, it is #64, and here is a link to their episode on Apple Podcasts. You can also listen on Podbean here on the BirdBanter.com site front page.
Thanks for listening. Until next time. Good birding. Good day!
Birding Around Field’s Spring State Park, Asotin County, WA
Marian and I took a 4 day-3 night camping trip to Field’s Spring State Park last week, staying the 3 nights in the park, and birding the two full days there on morning car trips from the campground to the two half-day loops described in the ABA’s A Birder’s Guide to Washington.
We drove from Tacoma to the park on Thursday, with brief stops at the Central Ferry HMU in Whitman County on the way there to pad my Whitman County list. It was midday, birding was slow there, but I added 11 species to my feeble Whitman List while we had lunch. A Say’s Phoebe along with Bullock’s Oriole and American White Pelicans on the river were the highlights.
We got to the campground by late afternoon, and an evening walk and sit by the campfire added several new Asotin County birds to my life list there; not a tough task as I had only birded the county in winter previously. First evening highlights were Red Crossbill, a species that throughout the stay was easily heard and occasionally seen overhead in the coniferous treetops, and a calling Common Nighthawk as it got toward dark.
The next morning I got a great group of songbirds excited just outside the campground with a Pygmy Owl imitation whistle, and added a few more species Then we drove down Hwy 129 to the Grande Ronde River Road and drove west for a few miles on that road. Several Townsend’s Solitaires, along with both Canyon and Rock Wrens, innumerable Lazuli Buntings, and several vocal Yellow-breasted Chats were highlights. The drive itself was spectacular, with many basalt cliffs, deep valleys, and open pine forest and huge meadows all around.
The river was cool too, but we missed American Dipper, and we got home in time to have lunch and to to Chief Timothy Park, where a swim and sit in the shade was enjoyable.
he next day was my favorite day of birding. We headed down from Anatone on Montgomery Ridge Road, pretty much following the route suggested in the guide book in reverse. One side road went down to the river, and then on the main road down to Asotin we went through fields with many Grasshopper Sparrows, Mountain Bluebirds, and as we got to the deciduous riparian area near the bottom Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos. We visited Swallows Park and Looking Glass Parks along the river, with a few shorebirds, Caspian Terns, gulls and had a nice lunch at Looking Glass.
On the drive home we took the W. Mountain Road from Anatone to Prosser, a long very dusty but beautiful drive. I picked up a female FOY Williamson’s Sapsucker there, along with a county first Northern Pygmy Owl that responded to my imitation whistle, both in Garfield County.
Overall a trip I recommend to anyone who wants to spend some time in the northern part of the Blue Mountains.
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #68 with Dennis Paulson Additional Info.
I have knows about Dennis Paulson since first moving to the Puget Sound area in 1987, and after getting his Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest book have enjoyed reading that and reviewing it every spring and fall as migration approaches. Dennis is an iconic figure in the Washington birding community. He has taught the Seattle Audubon Master Birding Class for many years, curated the Slater Museum at the University of Puget Sound and taught there, has talked at just about every local and regional birding related event for decades, and is such a nice guy that he is truly beloved by WA birders.
We talk about lots of topics on the podcast. Here are links to some of them.
Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest is out of print, and expensive on Amazon. If you want a copy, search and maybe you can find one.
Shorebirds of North America a Photographic Guide is still available.
Hawks in Flight by Pete Dunne and others is here on Buteo Books.
Pete Dunnes Field Guide Companion is the third book I mentioned that is one of my favorites. It is best found as a Kindle Book on Amazon now, as the hard cover ones are expensive. It is not a book with photographs or color plates, so a digital version should be great. ‘
Here is a link to the online Slater Museum Collection of wings and tails. You’ll need to search by scientific name, so be prepared.
Both of the dragonfly books we discussed, the Dragonflies of the East and Dragonflies of the West are still available on Amazon.
We talk about the Washington Ornithological Society convention. Here is a link to the WOS web site.
The Audubon Guide to the Birds of Oregon we talked about is by David Irons, my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #58. with a link here.
You can find the Seattle Audubon Society website page on the here to check on the next Master Birding Class with Dennis.
Thanks for visiting. Please subscribe to the Bird Banter Podcast wherever you get your podcast feeds.
Good Birding. Good day!