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.
Author: birdbanter
Black Phoebe Finally
Pierce County listing for me this year has not been a priority, and so the year end is near and I’d yet to successfully chase or find my own Black Phoebe in the county this year, although several have been seen. Recently on has been reported at the Sha Dadx Wetlands in Fife, not far from home in Tacoma, and so I’ve made a couple of trys in the last week. Finally today, despite moderate fog, the bird was calling loudly over the pond in the middle of the wetland. I got a recording, although no visual. It seemed to be moving around the edges of the pond, and visibility was obstructed by the bushes.
The Bird Banter Podcast #166 with Steve Hampton Additional Info.
On this episode Steve Hampton and I talk about a wide variety of topics. Maybe the most timely and of widespread interest was his experiences ad a member of the AOU Ad Hoc committee charged with the task “to develop a process that will allow the [AOS] to change harmful and exclusionary English bird names in a thoughtful and proactive way for species within AOS’s purview.” I enjoyed hearing Steve’s perspectives and experiences on the committee’s work. You can read the recommendation in full, and I recommend you do if the topic interests you here.
Steve is retired from his prior job in California, and retired in the Port Townsend area. He recently wrote a very thourough and informative post on his The Cottonwood Post blog about gull ID in the area. He also writes on issues of indigenoous peoples of the U.S. area on Memories of the People. You can contact Steve, and get links to both of his blogs and all three of the Facebook groups he helps administer at his personal/professional website Stephen-Carr-Hapmton.com.
Steve talks about the eBird trends section, and here is a link to that feature.
I mention a prior episode about the mouse eradication on the Farralone Islands, so here is a link to the episode with Tim Larson about that topic.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!
A Great Sunday. One State and One Pierce County Lifer in the Same Day!
Marian and I were staying at our Lake Forest Park cabin after returning from Orcas Island and Thanksgiving with her family on Saturday, and I was pleased to here that the Black-and-White Warbler was still being seen at Green Lake in Seattle on Saturday. Marian had plans to decorate the cabin with her grandsons on Sunday, and so I took the chance to chase the BAWW. I got to Green Lake about 8:10 AM, and was surprised that there was not a birder in sight as I located the Bath House (now a theatre) and the described area for the bird. I spent the first hour or so looking all over, with no luck. Around then birders started to arrive; a relief that I was in the right place. We looked all around, and a couple of birders I know, Bruce LaBar a good friend from Tacoma and a guest on episode #3 of the podcast, and Alex Patia who was also a guest on episode #91. We continued to search, and after a while I followed Alex well south of the usual area. He continued to look, and as I walked back toward the bath house area I saw about 4 birders intently looking and taking photos of a tree right in front of them. I was hopeful, and hurried to their location, to be rewarded with great looks at the warbler. It was doing the BAWW thing, creeping along branches and the trunk of trees, like a nuthatch or creeper but more on the horozontal limbs. No camera, and elusive to digibin attempts, but still a really great WA state first for me. After great looks, putting the word out to Bruce and others via the WhatsApp King County thread, I headed back to see Marian. She was ready to head home so we headed south just as word got out about a Tuften Puffin at the Dune Peninsula park near our home.
I drove home, and Marian agreed to come with me to Dune as it was nearing dusk. I got there, after communicating with Bruce that the puffin continued to show, and on arrival the Tufted Puffin was close enough to see bare-eyed. I got great looks, digiscope photos, and also great looks at 3 very close in Ancient Murrelets. Overall a great day for lifers in WA for me.
The Bird Banter Podcast #165 with Rachel Hudson Additional Info.
On this episode Rachel and I talk about her years birding and growing up in East Texas, her move to Washington after high school, her interests in art, photography, birding and more.
Every time I’ve met Rachel in the field I’ve been impressed that she was an extremely quiet and almost shy but very competent birder. It was fun to get to see her one-on-one for the podcast episode. She is highly energetic, a good story teller, and was a lot of fun to feel like I now know her a little bit at least.
We talked briefly about her birding and friendship with Dalton Spencer, who was a prior guest on the podcast, and recently broke the Montana Big Year record.
The Vaux’s Swift project, Vaux Happening, has helped understand the movements both spring and fall of this migratory species in the western U.S. for over a decade. You can learn about it and volunteer to help at their website .
You can best reach out to Rachel by email lighteningdash09-at-yahoo-dot-com
Ferry County makes it 39×100+
Today I broke away from Marian’s condo at Lake Chelan to get up to Ferry County in hopes of finding the last 11 species there I needed to give me at least 100 species in each of Washington’s 39 counties. The day really depended on finding ducks, as they were the “low hanging fruit” in mid November that I hadn’t seen in Ferry. That really depended on whether the fresh water was still open, and I knew it was nearing time to freeze. Yesterday I had the idea to reach out to Donna Bragg, a birder I’d met at some point on one of Ken’s trips to this area, but didn’t have a contact of any sort. I asked Ken, no help there, and so asked Google. I got a phone number easily, and tried to text her. Whoops! A land line, so no luck and so I did the old fashioned thing and called. Tom, her husband answered, and Debbie is away on a birding trip, but he reached out to her, who reached out to a local birder, and so after a few calls I learned that the water is open here still! Big thanks to the Bragg family for going above and beyond.
As for the day it went great. A mostly overcast but dry and mid-40’s with only moderate wind day, so I left Manson at 5:45, drove across the Waterville Plateau to Grand Coulee, crossed the river, took 155 to Peter Dan Rd across to Hwy 21. About half way across to Rte 21 I entered Ferry County, and promptly saw a single Wild Turkey, not a species I needed. The rest of the day was spent driving south on 21 to the Keller Ferry, the back up to Republic, then on to Curlew Lake, and then across Hwy 20 and Sherman Pass to Colvile where I’m spending the night at the Comfort Inn.
Birding highlights were:
-First Ferry lifer was a Northern Shrike in a utility wire, the first of at least 3 seen today.
-Bufflehead in a small backwater on the road back to Keller Ferry (several more seen later in the day)
-Pacific Wren, heard when I stopped to see a bird on a wire that was a Song Sparrow, but with pishing it came out for a good look.
-At a roadside pool off 21 were 6 Green-winged Teal and a Lesser Scaup, both seen again later.
-Finally a Mallard in an algae filled wet area again off Hwy 21. (many later)
-A little later I stopped to watch in awe as a Ruffed Grouse slowly walked across the road.
-The Republic STP worried me at first, as the two easily visible ponds were pretty empty, but walking back to the back pond gave a lot of ducks, including 95 Northern Shovelers and several Common Goldeneye, bringing me to 98 species by noon of day 1. There were also Mallard, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Green-winged Teal, and an Northern Shrike there.
-From here I drove straight to the Rail Trail Wetland north of Curlew Lake. I can’t wait to put this site into BirdingHotspots.org as e-bird’s hotspot pin is at the Rte 21 end of the trail where I had to cross a creek on a fallen tree to access the trail. At the W. Curlew Lake Rd end is a good parking lot, toilet, and easy access. The trail though is great and is the top eBird hotspot in Ferry by species, and traversed a large shallow pond and extensive cattail marsh, and ends at the north end of the lake where by the parking is a nice tressle-turned walking bridge to look at the lake. There I added American Wigeon and #100 for Ferry Common Merganser, along with a loudly singing Marsh Wren, and on the lake from the tressle Red-necked and Western Grebe to end the lowland part of the day’s list at 103. I was having so much fun I forgot to have lunch, so about 3 PM Iad stopped at Curlew Lake SP, closed so I just ate quickly and headed back to cross Sherman Pass on Hwy 20. A few quick stops used up the last of the light, adding only Steller’s Jay at Sherman Pass on a snowy walk to the parking area.
Beyond Burger and fries at Zip Drive-in for dinner, and now to figure out what’s left for tomorrow.
After a night at the Comfort Inn, I was out before daylight to try for a couple of Stevens County birds at dawn. I headed for two places I’d never been, the mouth of the Colville Rived and Colville Flats, two pretty beautiful spots I realize. The Mouth of the river was pretty, but really few birds, so after a false stop at the recycling center (nothing at all) I headed for the Colville Flats where I added 4 new county birds, Herring Gull, California Gull, Western and Horned Grebes. It’s a pretty place but I made it a quick stop.
From here I headed back to Ferry County and at the Kettle River Campground I lucked out at 4 Trumpter Swans (alert birds) flew in to the wetland. Two American Coots were there too and an Evening Grosbeak was calling regularly, though not seen.
From here I finished my loop around the county, heading south along the river on Inchelium Road, and then across Silver Creek Road to Rte 21, in and out the Swawilla Basin Road (learning the west end is impassible, and back home across the same route I c
ame. The highlights were a single Ring-billed Gull along the river, finally Hairy Woodpecker on Silver Creek Road, several stops to put up a NOPY toot and getting nice flocks of chickadees, Pygmy and Red-breasted Nuthatches and eventually a pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets. At Swawilla Basin I finished strong with a huge flock of California Quail, a small group of White-crowned Sparrows, and a sub-adult Golden Eagle, bringing my Ferry County list to 113.
What’s next?
The Bird Banter Podcast #164 with Dorian Anderson Additional Info.
Catching up with Dorian Anderson for another podcast episode was really fun, as it seems is pretty much any time I get to spend with Dorian. He is a likable, high-energy, funny and really smart person, and I was really happy that we got to talk again.
Buy Dorian’s bookhere.
Here is a link to the Tropical Birding business where Dorian guides both birding and photography tours.
I talk about Dorian’s posts about birding New Zealand and here is a link to his blog posts about that topic.
I had never heard about the Pop Tech conference, and think it looks pretty cool. Check it out here.
I’d love to see comments from listeners after you read Dorian’s book. Give me feedback and maybe I can mention your review on a future blog post.
Until next time, good birding and good day!
Some Days are Just Special
A delayed post here about a really terrific day of birding at Tokeland, WA with really good birding buddies Ken Brown and Bruce LaBar. Often days of birding have their ups and downs. Maybe the birds are good, but the weather is lousy. Maybe you find some desired species and miss others. Maybe traffic is tough on the way to or from the destination. Then some days seem like not much could go better. Friday, Oct 27, 2023 was one of those really great days.
Ken met me at my house at 6:30, a really civilized time we thought, and we picked up Bruce and headed for Tokeland, WA where a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had been found two days prior and seemed to be sticking around. The drive down was full of talk of Mariners baseball, the MLB playoffs and World Series, along with the usual catching up with each others lives. Immediately on arrival at the designated 8th and Kindred intersection we parked a block away and as we walked to the intersection saw a birder aiming his long lens at the wires over the intersection. I shouted to Ken and Bruce that THE BIRD was on the wire. We walked up in beautiful crisp cool air and morning light to see the WA lifer for Ken and myself Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in exactly the same place it had been for the last 2 days (off-and-on).
We all celebrated the great bird, spent some time watching it, and headed off to the marina to look for the other target birds of the day. It was near high tide, and the usual flock of Marbled Godwits were immediately under the bank on the shoerline of the marina, and we quickly located the one Bar-tailed Godwit among the maybe 1000 or so MAGOs. Over 30 Willits were in the flock, along with a few Short-billed Dowichers. A bit later as we walked out to the fishing pier to look for the female King Eider (a.k.a. “Queen Eider”) we got great looks at the county first for me Surfbird, far from surf, huddled at along with the godwits.
The eider was spotted far out off the jetty for identifiable but poor views, but later in the day we all got much better looks. We spent the rest of the day birding the marina, enjoying the sunshine, and generally feeling great.
The drive home was easy, and we all got home for dinner safely. Overall an A+ day in my way of looking at life. Great friends, great birds, great weather. It all adds up to a memorable day.
May there be many more!
The Bird Banter Podcast #163 with Michael Hobbs Additional Info.
On this episode Michael Hobbs is my guest. Michael is a longtime WA birder who has done a survey of the birds of Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA weekly for almost 30 years! This is one of the top eBird hotspots in King County, WA, and Michael has documented the weekly occurance of birds there in great detail. This is a fabulous database of birds at a fairly typical varied Puget Sound low elvation park, and has to be unique in its detailed documentation. You can contact Michael by the email on the site if you want to join the survey some Thursday.
Michael is also an avid WA county birder, with >150 species in each of the 39 WA counties. We talk a bit about county birding on the episode. You can see all about county birding and more on the Washington Birder website. Here is an example of the great content on the site, the 2022 year-end report of county birding for the year.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Until next time, good birding!
Lapland Longspurs at the Gravel Lot above Dune
Lapland Longspurs Calcarius lapponicus are a cool bird anywhere, and can be a tough year bird in Pierce County. Yesterday afternoon the WhatsApp group for Pierce County let me know that Craig Miller has found a small flock at the gravel lot above Wilson Way, and a bit later Marcus Roening found a flock of 9 birds there. I headed over and got there at the same time as Bruce LaBar. Marcus was still there, and he quickly got us on the birds as they crept along the tall grass on the west edge of the parking lot. We got great looks as they snuck along, seeming to step on grass blades to bring the seeds down to their level. Photos were challenging as they rarely came into the open, but I persisted and got a few decent shots.
This was a FOY bird for me in the state except for one fly-by with Charlie the day prior at the point on Dune, when he helped me recognize what I had heard fly by unseen. This was needless to say much more satisfying. I think it is the largest group of LALO I’ve seen other than in Alaska decades ago.
Although Lapland Longspurs are uncommon in fall and winter here, in the Arctic they are often the most abundant breeding landbird, and between the Rockie Mountains and the Great Lakes from southern Canada to Okalhoma they can be abundant in the right habitat. Per Birds of the World their non-breeding habitat is described as, “Prairies, open weedy and grassy fields, grain stubbles, shores, and any open ground with no or light snow cover providing access to seed.” They breed in the Arctic in wet and vegetated dryer areas, generally more densely vegetated than the habitat preferred by Snow Buntings. They nest on the ground in slightly excavated areas in dense vegetation and line their nest usually with fur or feathers, laying 3-7 eggs and the eggs hatch after only 10-13 days of incubation, and although born altrical (eyes closed and naked) they fledge in only 8-11 days and don’t fly for a few days after leaving the nest.
It’s always a good day for me in WA when I see a Lapland Longspur, and to see at least 7 today (others counted 9) was extraordinary.