A photo from Alex, of the Akiapolaa’au, a critically endangered Hawaii Island endemic
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode $41 with Alex Wang will drop on Dec 6th, but since I’m leaving tonight for Chaing Mai, Thailand to visit Art Wang, my guest on Episode #14:
I’ve met Alex on a couple of Vashon Island Christmas Bird Counts and have birded with Art a number of times. Alex is really well informed about conservation issues in Hawaii, and is a top birder too, so makes for a fascinating guest. Iiwi
He is just about to begin to lead one day trips on the Big Island of Hawaii with Birding Babe Eco Tours so you can book a day birding with Alex there.
I thought I’d use most of this post to show photos Alex let me use of many of the birds he mentions in the episode and some suggestions from Alex about where to go birding in Hawaii. This is a direct cut and paste from an e-mail from Alex.
Eastern Wild Turkey subspecies, note the chestnut brown tail feather tips, and the black and white bars on the wings. Photo from NWTF website.
I’m on Orcas Island for Thanksgiving, and although I’m vegan, others in the group are preparing a turkey for dinner. It may show a bit of looseness of association, but I checked and see that I have Wild Turkey on my San Juan Island, WA county list. That is a bit unusual in western WA as in WA most of the areas with WITU are east of the Cascades. From here is was not a big stretch for me to take a little time to research the story of the Wild Turkey populations in the U.S.
Florida subspecies, M.G. oscelata, note the dark brown tail feather tips and mostly black wings with only narrow silver wing bars. Photo credit FWC website.
There are only two species of wild turkeys in the world, our Wild Turkey, Melaeagris gallapavo, and the Ocelated Turkey of Mexico and central america M. ocelata. Rio Grande subspecies. Note tan colored tail feather tips and about equal black and white on the wings. Photo credit Agri Life Extension.
Before Columbus arrived, Wild Turkeys were common and an important source of food in the eastern part of the U.S. There are 6 subspecies of Wild Turkey, the eastern population M.g. silvestris covered the eastern half of the U.S. and parts of southern CanadaFlorida, and the Florida subspecies is M.g Osceola. In the western parts of the U.S. the subspecies M.g. meriami (Meriam’s subspecies) covered much of the intermountain areas, the Rio Grande subspecies, M.g. intermedia was mostly in the central plains states and parts of Mexico, and Gould’s Wild Turkey was in S.E. Arizona and S.W. New Mexico. A sixth subspecies, the Mexican Wild Turkey is felt to be extinct, but it is felt to be the predecessor of all the domestic wild turkeys being bred throughout the world today. This has become such a huge industry that in 2016 produced an estimated 7.5 billion pounds of meat. Merriam’s subspecies of Wild Turkey. Note the white or very light tail feather tips, and white rump area, and more white than dark on the wings. Photo credit Nebraskaland Magazine.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the new world, there are estimated to have been about 10 million wild turkeys in the area that is now the lower 48 U.S. This population was decimated by multiple factors. Hunting for market was a big issue. By 1850 most of the virgin wild forests in the eastern U.S. had been cleared for farmland, so habitat loss was a big factor. After the Civil War the combination of logging, railroads to move harvested trees, and unregulated hunting continued. By 1920 only 21 of the 39 states (using current boundaries) still had wild turkeys. By 1925-1930 the total U.S. Wild Turkey population has estimated ranging from 30,000 (probably too low) to 200,000 (more likely).
By the 1930’s efforts to reintroduce wild turkeys to various areas were being tried. Lack of habitat, by the 1930’s did not seem to be a limiting factor. By then family farms were already being abandoned, and regrowth of trees in those areas provided excellent Wild Turkey habitat. The big issue was how difficult it was to live capture Wild Turkeys. Pole traps, pen traps, funnel traps and drop nets just didn’t catch them. Because of this efforts were made to capture and breed turkeys, and then release them to establish new breeding colonies. There is no evidence of this ever working. It turns out that wild mother Wild Turkeys have to teach their young techniques to survive, and captive bred turkeys just couldn’t survive without wild mothers to raise them. The few efforts at first felt to be working, turned out to be inmovement from existing populations into areas where birds had been released.
In the 1950’s techniques to capture Wild Turkeys were explored, and finally in 1951 in North Carolina Herman (Duff) Holbrook found he could use a cannon fired net that had been previously used to catch waterfowl could successfully catch Wild Turkeys. Over the next 6 years he managed to capture 241 Eastern Wild Turkeys, and released these birds in 8 locations in S. Carolina. At least half of these releases led to growing wild populations.
About the same time a W. Virginia hunter and biologist Wayne Bailey experimented with the cannon nets, and became so good at this that he captured wild birds and established over 20 locations across W. Virginia. By 1959 at least 31 states were working to establish WITU populations. This made WITU maybe the most extensively and comprehensively applied conservation activity anywhere in the world in the mid 20th century. As in conservation of duck and goose habitat, hunters were the primary source of funding and energy behind these efforts.
Estimates of WITU populations in the U.S show that the growth in the WITU populations has indeed been incredible. The estimated 320,000 in 2951 increased to 1.4 million by 1974, to 1.8 million in 1979, to 2.4 million in 1984, 4.1 million in 1994, and seems to have leveled off at somewhere over 6 million today.
The political power and business acumen of hunters and WITU conservationists was on display throughout the latter parts of this WITU introduction efforts. The Lacey Act of 1907 prohibited the interstate sale and transportation of wildlife. This meant that either the stated capturing to WITU to send across state lines had to donate the birds and accept the cost without reimbursement, or otherwise figure out the costs. Things like barter, where one state provided one type of wildlife in exchange for the WITU happened. Things like Large-mouth Bass, River Otter, and Ruffed Grouse were used. The political clout of hunters came to the forefront. A group called the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) created a “”Super Fund” system that allowed each states NWTF chapter to hold part of the funds they raises to be used exclusively for Wild Turkey and hunting heritage projects. This freed states to introduce viable WITU populations, and from there the turkeys flourished so that now there are established WITU populations in every lower 48 state and in Hawaii. Gould’s subspecies of Wild Turkey. Note the long legs, and snow white tail feather tips and rump feathers. Photo credit Arizona Hunting.
Somewhat amazingly, despite the usual issues with introduced non-native populations having unintended consequences, except for being a nuisance to humans in some areas where they intrude onto peoples yards and annoy them, the introduced WITU have not been demonstrated to be a major detriment to native populations.
So the good news is that I now have WITU in many of the WA counties, several U.S. states.
Here are photos of several of the subspecies of WITU in the U.S. The re-introduction programs have mixed up the subspecies to a degree that in many areas pure subspecies are hard to find or differentiate, and interbreeding of introduced WITU of various subspecies had blurred the subspecies ID beyond practical application in the field.
Here are links to two of the primary sources of the info in this post.
White-tailed Tropicbirds were easily seen in various places.
Although this trip has been based out of the Pono Kai resort about midway up the east coast of Kauai, and has not been primarily a birding trip, I’ve had pretty good chances to get out birding, though have not been able to access any of the higher elevation native habitats needed to see most of the endemic species. Rain- heavy at times- and driving sedan with not-new tires has prevented even trying the dirt roads needed for access to Koke’e State Park and the Alaki i Swamp areas I’d have liked to get to bird in. At the Fern Grotto on a boat ride up the only river large enough to navigate in Kauai, the most common bird was feral Rock Pigeon.
Still I brought a spotting scope, and have birded most of the lower elevation spots I knew about.
My #1 take away is that it is hard to find many species of birds on Kauai. Pacific Golden Plovers are all over Kauai at this time of year.
Hawaii life list prior to this trip, when I’d really only casually birded near Honolulu, and on Maui and Kauai, was only 20 species on eBird. I’d visited Maui in 1992 and Kauai in 2003. I know I had a few more, but didn’t keep good records so that was my starting point. Now with 1 more day and low expectations for any new birds, my HI list stands at 41. Common Myna
At first glance that seems pitiful. I must admit I have not really worked the urban areas to try for every possible introduced species. Misses have included Red Avadavat, Saffron Finch, Japanese Bush-warbler, and African Silverbill. Hawaiian Black-necked Stilt
My birding started at the airport in Maui, where I had a 55 minute layover before changing planes to Kauai. I saw House Sparrow and Common Myna there.
I had learned from the Hawaii Audubon Society website 2 most common birds, Common Myna and Zebra Dove. I believe that. This was one of the few lists that did not have both of those species.
On arrival at our condo, it was dark, so Sunday AM we took a brief walk on the Kapa’a State Beach State Park walkway. Very nice paved walk, on abandoned sugar plantation train route, 4 miles long on Kapa’a shore. #1 eBirder for this hotspot is George Gertz from WA. I managed 10 species, including new HI birds for me White-rumped Sharma. As expected, but still really cool, were Pacific Golden Plovers everywhere. Seen in WA in migration, usually fall juveniles. Fly across the Pacific from Alaska. Here seen all over. Rooftops, parking lots, any grassy area. Wonder what Parr is for a golf course in PGPL / hole. My guess is higher than parr for golf shots. Red-crested Cardinal is one of the more common exotic songbirds here.
Also Sunday we visited ‘Opaeka’s Falls, a nice view but 4 species of birds previously seen. Farther south along Hwy 50 we pulled out at a scenic lookout, and got nice but distant looks at two new HI birds for me, White-tailed Tropicbird and Rose-ringed Parakeet. Also spectacular vistas of a distant waterfall, the seemingly ubiquitous rainbow we have seen this week, (speaks to the weather) and fought off the domestic Jungle Fowl.
Nene, or Hawaiian Goose is fairly common after a successful recovery program.
Monday I headed out myself, leaving Marian to explore Kapa’a Town, and fought rain most of the morning. I planned to head south, visiting some urban, forested and wetland areas. As is often the case when visiting new areas access to viewing was difficult, but I had a nice morning. First was Hule’ia NWR. Heavy rain made it tough, but I managed to see a few Warbling White-eyes, (used to be Japanese White-eye prior to a lump of Japanese and Mountain White-eyes in 2018). I tried and failed to find viewable access to the reservoirs around Koloa, but stumbled upon a birdy area of farmland, finding my only Chinese Hwamei of the trip so far, and great looks at adult male White-rumped Sharma with their long streaming tail feathers. Zebra Dove is one of the most common birds on Kauai, and throughout the islands.
By far my favorite stop of the day was at the Salt Ponds State Park, just past the south tip of the island. A place with open wetlands where sea salt is harvested, making muddy habitat where I found several WATA, RUTU and lots of BNST Hawaiian race, and of course PGPL. I also saw a Brown Booby working off shore, and two species of dabbling ducks, N. Shoveler and N. Pintail. By the time I finished there about noon it was getting really hot, and I headed for the pool and lunch. Cattle Egrets are ubiquitous here.
Tuesday we had planned to take a helicopter ride, but it rained so hard the trip was cancelled. We only planned to do this because Marian won a 2-for-1 drawing at the condo when the concierge told of things to do nearby. My experience on this trip maybe 20 years ago was of trying not to barf from the diesel fumes and motion sickness the whole trip, so I called this good Karma and gladly bailed. We headed for the dry side of the island, and enjoyed stops at the Kawaiele Wildlif¬e Sanctuary¬ where we spotted the first Hawaiian Coot, Hawaiian race of Common Galanule, and N. Mockingbird of the trip. It was great to show Marian Nene, and BCNH too. The rest of the day was beach stops, swimming and nothing special for birds. The old lighthouse at Kilauea Point. It was powered by a kerosene lamp, and with the 8000 pound Fresnel Lens that floated on 260 ;bs of mercury could be seen 90 miles at sea. It is now inoperational.
Wednesday we took a bus trip around the island, with little birding, but saw more White-tailed Tropicbirds here and there, and at the Kilauea Light House saw hundreds of Red-footed Boobies and lots of White-tailed Tropicbirds, Great Frigatebirds, and a few Brown Boobies, along with the expected Laysan’s Albatrosses roosting under some pine trees. 20 years ago when I was there, we saw them nesting on grass right by the lighthouse, but this time they were fairly distant looks. Surprisingly we didn’t find Red-tailed Tropicbird, which I had expected to see. The new LED light can be seen only 7 miles at sea, but does not need the toxic mercury, is efficient and inexpensive to operate.
Today we headed back north, with plans for spending some time at the Kilewea Lighthouse Park on a seawatch, and see the RTTR along with hopefully a Wedge-tailed Shearwater. I spent nearly 2 hours on a seawatch. I did manage lots of great looks at the same species we say yesterday, but no WTSH anywhere. I talked to a ranger. She warned me it was late, but any chance for WTSH would be remaining chicks in their burrows. She advised looking for scree on the paved path, and look near there. We spent a few minutes doing this, and sure enough, right behind the pay-station at the foot of the path was fresh scree, and literally a foot off the trail, in a burrow was what appeared to be a soon-to-fledge WTSH chick peeking out of its hole. Really cute and obliging. My first non-introduced lifer for the trip. Yahoo!
The last birding hotspot of the day was at the Hanalea NWR, a large wetlands where I found Hawaiian Ducks and my first Scaly-breasted Munia of the trip. Earlier this AM on an exercise walk near the condo I had seen several Chestnut Munia, so managed both of those species today. Hawaiian Duck, not the brown tail, distinguishing it from a Mallard.
My takeaways for the trip so far is that a birder should not come to Hawaii expecting to easily tick a large number of species. To get many native species plan to get to high elevation areas, spend some time there, and have an all-wheel drive high clearance vehicle to get in and out.
Still, maybe the definition of a first-world problem is struggling to find a large list of birds when getting to the “garden island” of Kauai for a week away from the short days and likely cold rain of the Puget Sound area in November. View from an overlook above Hanalea.
It’s been a very enjoyable trip, and I’m having lots of fun, and seeing a few birds too.
Until next time, good birding, and good day!
In this episode Isaiah and I talk about his 2019 Washington State Big year and his birding story. Isaiah is a top young Washington State birder, and I hope you find his story interesting. I also talk a bit about my upcoming vacation to Kauai and the issues with exotic species in Hawaii.
You can contact Isaiah via the e-mail address available on his eBird profile page which also has up to date information on his WA big year progress and links to photos, etc.
Here is a link to Episode #26 with Tim Larson and the issues about house mouse eradication on the Farallon Islands off the California Coast.
You can also reach out to Isaiah on Facebook or Instagram.
Stay tuned for more about my upcoming Hawaii birding experiences.
Here is a link to the Hawaii Invasive Species Council.
I hope to bird at the Kilauea Point NWR. Here is the eBird hotspot link for this place. Here is a link to a cool video from the hotspot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGlma3ZKHE
Here is to a great week in Hawaii, and to talking to you about it soon.
Until next time, good birding. Good day!
When I stumbled across the Birdsong Podcast I just loved it. I felt like I was spending a little time birding in with a friend in a area with a representative eastern U.S. avifauna. I heard the narrator quietly walking through the woods, marshes and fields while giving a quiet play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird narrative of what we were hearing. It is simple, novel and well done. Just flat-out cool stuff for a birder to hear IMHO. In brushy habitat a good guess in our area to the identity of any loud repeated birdsong or call of a bird you cannot locate is likely to be this Bewick’s Wren.
You can find his introductory episode at this link on iTunes
Here is a link to the Birding by Ear series I talk about in the intro to this episode. This is the Eastern U.S. course, there is also a series for the Western U.S. birds. The Ka-brick call of this Ash-throated Flycatcher to me sounds like a referee’s whistle.
If you have other podcasts you love, please leave info in the comments section.
Thanks for listening. Until next time. Good birding. Good day!
On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #37 I talk with Alaskan Island expert and trip leader John Pushcock. John has been able to lead trips to Attu in recent years using a seaworthy ship to transport birders from Adak to Attu, birding Attu by day, and sleeping on the boat at night. He also has led trips to Adak, Utgiagvik (previously Barrow), Alaska. John runs a Seattle based birding tour company Zugunruhe Birding Tours, website Zbirdtours.com
You can find John on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/john.puschock but the best way is via his website above.
On the podcast we talk briefly about my experience on the 5-day Pelagic trip on the Searcher out of San Diego. The leader of that trip is John McGrath, I could not recall his last name when we were talking. Here is a link to the trip site. https://www.bajawhale.com/wildlife-tours/pelagic-birding-tours/
We talk about John’s early birding days on the east coast, his time in California, and how he came to become a leading Alaskan island bird tour operator. Enjoy.
In case you are wondering, I did chase the Yellow-browed Warbler to Victoria the day after we recorded this episode, and got eyes on a bird others saw well enough to identify, but I had to leave it as a bird probably seen but left off my list. A great day birding though.
I had such a fun time talking with Tasha DiMarzio on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #36. We talked about her younger years as a domestic fowl breeder and caretaker, her career for 15 years working to sustain and protect the endangered Steller’s Eiders of Alaska, and her more recent adventures and endeavors. Here are some links to things we talked about as well as some we did not.
On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #35 I talk with Dr. Ursula Valdez about her birding story and about her decade plus of work in the Peruvian Amazon. We cover a lot of issues, and in this post I hope to add details and clarification to some of the topics we discussed. Her doctoral work was studying forest falcons in the Southeastern Peru Amazon. Here is a list of some of her publications related to that work listed on the Peregrine Fund page on a global raptors site. Here is the article on my birding club’s site after she made her presentation to us at a club meeting. The Five species of forest falcons Dr. Valdez studied in the Peruvian Amazon (from her talk at ABC Birding)
This is a photo of her slide at that presentation of the five species of forest falcons she studied in her doctoral work.
More recently Dr. Valdez has been working with a local landowner, other researchers, local youth, and visiting volunteers at él Centro de Educacíon, Ciencia y Conservacíon, in the Madre de Díos, a great name translated the Mother of Gods, in the Tambopata Province of Peru, near the town of Puerto Maldonado. This is one of the most species diverse areas of the world, and in an area being ravished by land clearing, slash burning and gold mining. We talk about the gold mining, much of which is done illegally, in areas where it is not legally allowed. The gold there is disbursed in the runoff sediment from the river, and huge areas of the river itself and surrounding forest are cleared, dug up, the gold extracted in a process using mercury, and left ravished. The ecological and health consequences are devastating to the community and of course to the wildlife of the area. Here is an article about this issue on the USAID website. The article addresses the social, ecological and community issues related to the illegal alluvial gold mining in the Madre de Díos region.
Dr. Valdez also talks about her local work at the Bothel Campus of the University of Washington, where she teaches, does local conservation work, and continues her research activities.
The facebook page @CECCOT is a great way to keep touch with their great organization and to hear about volunteer opportunities there. Be sure to like and follow their page, and support their work in any way that you are able
Until next time, good birding. Good day!
In this episode Brad and I talk a lot about birding in Clallam County, WA. Over the last decade or so it has become increasingly clear that Neah Bay is a special place in the fall. If you look at a map of the northwestern U.S. you will see that Neah Bay and Cape Flattery are at the very northwest most point of the lower 48 United States.
Just this fall rare Washington species found in Neah Bay include Blackburnian Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Tropical Kingbird (frustratinglyk found the day after I left Neah Bay), Lapland Longspur, Lark Sparrow (rare for that location, not eastern WA), Red-shouldered Hawk, Northern Mockingbird, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and American Redstart.
I am hopeful that Brad will help me mark up a Neah Bay map with the birders names for locations often used in describing places in the town.
Here is a link to Matt Bartell and Ken Knittel’s WA Birder website. http://wabirder.com/
Here are some photos from my recent Neah Bay trip:
Black Turnstone
72 Black Oystercatchers Gray Whale
Here is a link to the ABC Birding website of our local birding club. http://abcbirding.com/
When I stumbled across the Birdsong Podcast I just loved it. I felt like I was spending a little time birding in with a friend in a area with a representative eastern U.S. avifauna. I heard the narrator quietly walking through the woods, marshes and fields while giving a quiet play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird narrative of what we were hearing. It is simple, novel and well done. Just flat-out cool stuff for a birder to hear IMHO.
