In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #31 John Patten Moss and I talk about his planned cross-country birding big year completely self powered and primarily on a UNICYCLE! Can you imagine, starting near where I live in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, travelling south to California, across to Arizona and across the southern U.S. using only a unicycle and his feet.
In episode Dorian Anderson and I talked about his 2014 Biking for Birds big year, when he saw 618 species, and started in Massachusetts, going south in freezing weather to Florida, then crossing the southern U.S., up the west coast and back through part of the central U.S. completely self powered on a bicycle. John and I talk about he unique challenges he will face on a unicycle, his life story of learning to unicycle and his birding story.
I look forward to following his big year at his blog: 2020: The Vision
There is a really cool video produced by a student at his alma mater Berry University about his unicycle use during college. Check it out here:
In case you have not seen it here is the blog of Dorian Anderson’s Biking for Birds big year
You can reach John on e-mail mossbill16 – at- yahoo dot – com
Be sure to reach out to him if you are interested in helping him in any way on his big year quest.
Until next time; Good birding. Good day!
Category: Blog
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #30 with Peter Wimberger Supporting Notes
In this episode I go to the Slater Museum at the University of Puget Sound to meet with Peter Wimberger, the museum director, and we talk about the role of a natural history museum in the world of science, education, research and ecology today. Peter is a passionate advocate of the museum and natural history museums in general, and an eloquent guest.
Here is a link to the website of the Slater Museum and the Burke Museum, a similar museum at the University of Washington. Both museums have the premier outstretched wing specimens of birds in North America. You can see photos of many of the wings on the websites.
Here is a link to my 
Here is a photo of the new Oceanic Bird Identification guide I talk about in the introduction
Until next time. Good birding. Good day!
The Bird Banter Episode #29 with Christian Hagenlocher Additional Info
In this episode Christian talks at length about his recent trip to Attu. Attu has a rich history of being a place where rarities can be found like no other place. I believe the book Christian mentions in the podcast is Attu: Birding on the Edge by Crista Waters. It is available on Amazon
Here is the link to the place to preorder Christian’s new book Falcon Freeway.
The National Audubon Society Hog Island Camp can be looked at here.
Here is the company Christian is guidingfor.
Here is the boat used for the Attu tour. M/V Pukuk on a tour with Zugunruhe Birding Tours.
I’ve looked at several Attu trip reports, and there really are not that many “highly likely” species I could add to my ABA life list that are not almost as likely on a trip to Gambel or Adak. Mega rarities would certainly be more likely, but at this time I don’t see Attu in my birding future.
Good birding. Good day.
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode#27 with the McQuades- Additional Information
I had an absolute blast recording this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast. Both Tammy and Dave McQuade have the energy you’d expect from a couple doing their 5th consecutive lower 48 Big Year, and have a great story to tell. Maybe the most interesting part of the episode to me was hearing about their new boat that they use for pelagic trips on the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike many west coast pelagic trips, where large flocks of birds are relatively easily found, in the gulf the birds are found in much smaller numbers, and congregate around bait fish, so it’s easy to miss them. Dave and Tammy have the solution. A fast boat with super powered radar that can detect a single bird as small as a term from two miles away. Then with their fast boat they can race over to see the bird. They can cover over 300 miles in a single day of birding.
Here is a photo of the boat:
This is the radar:
They are exploring what they call ABA birding’s last frontier, the relatively unbirded gulf waters.
I also talked about several other birder’s big years in the podcast introduction. Here are some links to those that I know of with websites or blogs:
https://www.facebook.com/david.mcquade.96
https://www.facebook.com/david.mcquade.96
Dorian Anderson’s blog from his bicycle big year.
Christian Hagenlocher’s The Birding Project page: .
Blair Bernson’s blog with details of many of his 50 state saga:
Olaf Danielson’s Big Year Blog:
John Weigel’s 2019 Big Year blog
The book I mentioned outlining a strategy to find 650 ABA birds on a budget is
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Birdfinder: A Birders Guide to Planning North American Trips
by Jerry Cooper. You can find it used on Amazon.
Noah Strycker wrote the book Birding Without Borders, available anywhere books are sold.
I am currently working on competition only with myself for Pierce County and Washington State Big Years I have no illusions about “winning” either year, but am enjoying getting around and finding what I can. By starting each year fresh, it gives incentive to get out to lots of places and go birding.
I currently have found 202 species in Pierce County, after Levee Pond dried up just in time for migration and yielded 5 FOY shorebirds this week, and 291 Washington State species for 2019. I am aiming for >300 this year, and it is pretty reachable with at least one more Pelagic trip planned and an Eastern WA trip set for early Sept that should yield a few new year birds.
Here are photos of some of the Levee Pond bonanza seen this week. From top to bottom, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, and Semi-palmated Sandpiper.
Until next time, good birding and good day.
Episode #26 with Tim Larson
In this episode Tim larson, passionate advocate for seabirds on the Farralone Islands off the California coast tells us about his work in support of mouse eradication on the islands. This topic is controversial, but I agree with Tim and the near universal supporting biologists who are trying to get this project done. Listen and let me know if you agree.
Here are supporting links.
First the snail mail address to send letters in support of the project.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Room 5128
Washington, DC 20230
Here are links related to the project and rodent eradication efforts elsewhere:
https://blog.nature.org/science/2015/12/15/miracle-palmyra-rats-birds-recovery-restoration-invasive-species-hawaii-nature-wildlife/?fbclid=IwAR0iIyQeuskChvJiokAEw9B7ImDNAZvJIidVbOBto8_DAYkl1zj8kXTEoQ4
https://www.facebook.com/Farallones-House-Mouse-Eradication-Project-534040270353530/?modal=admin_todo_tour
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/on-assignment/assignment-paradise-lost-found-n572216?fbclid=IwAR1FoCNxOaSVDxpGPAv1U2jZXWCa2fTiChaP7k740Bpcp-9RsN9Uy_Muv_M
one i
Leave comments and let me know what you think.
Good birding. Good day.
Episode #25 with Dr. John Fitchen
In episode #25 I talk with another physican Dr. John Fitchen. He is a retired hematology-oncologist and a top Portland, OR area birder. He recently published a book:
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Life Through the Lens of a Doctor Birder: A Memoir
. I read the book and it is an enjoyable read for birders or for general interest. Birders will enjoy chapters on his trip to Attu, and his Multnomah County Big Year, as well as the field notes at the end of each chapter describing the last 20 species he saw entoute to getting to 300 on his Multnomah County Life List.
Readers or listeners can get a 10% discount on the book at https://aerbook.com/store/fitchen using the code BANTER
On the podcast we talked briefly about the role of physician in early American ornithology. I looke more into this to be sure I was remembering correctly. Spencer Baird, of Smithsonian fame, married the daughter of the Secretary of the Army, and with that influence managed to recruit the help of many Army Surgeons on exploratory expeditions, as well as at outposts, who sent him species skins, eggs, etc. Some names that will sound familiar are:
John James Cooper (Cooper’s Hawk)
Adolphys L Heermann (Heermann’s Gull)
John Fox Hammond (Flycatcher)
In addition George Stellar was a Russian physician who explored the northwest and Arctic areas, having Stellar’s Jay, Stellar’s Sea Eagle, the Extince Stellar’s Sea Cow, Stellar’s Sea Lion named after him.
You can read more about this at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44442753?read-now=1&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents
I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you have yet to listen, you can find it at http://birdbanter.com/
On that page you can listen on Podbean, or can find one-click links to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify.
Thanks.
Good Birding. Good Day!
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Life Roads in Eastern WA
Last weekend I headed east of the Cascades to bird some areas I had not visited before, and to introduce a friend and new birder to the experience of a birding trip. We found new roads, good birds and Marian survived, so overall I consider the trip a success.
We started going north to Hwy 20, the North Cascades Highway. The first birding stop was at the Goodell Creek Bridge near Newhalem. This is one of the best places in WA to see Black Swift. Black Swifts are believed to be breed only in nests behind waterfalls, and forage far and wide espeicially high up, so are tough to go find. It seems more often they are seen almost by accident, looking up into the sky on overcast days near the mountains. Today I lucked out. As I munched a PB&J sandwich on the bridge a single BLSW flew by, among many more Violet-green Swallows.
Next stop was at Washington Pass. I had never really stopped there before, but David Poortinga had reported a Spruce Grouse there a month prior, and it was a good half way stop for the day to stretch, so we pulled off on the Chelan County side and explored a bit. The meadow on the west side of the entrance road was lush, moist, and beautiful. A Spotted Sandpiper teetered on a stump in the middle of the meadow. Above the parking lot is a nice short hike to vistas in several directions, that was quite spectacular.
From there we headed on to Republic, where I thought I had reserved a room. As I got near, I brought up my Priceline app to get exact directions, and was momentarily confused when the map showed it was 1 day, 3 hours to the destination. It turns out I had a reservation in Republic, Missouri. Not helpful, and so we had to settle for the Honeymoon Suite at a low quality place. I felt like a newbie, egg on face. Still, a place to sleep was fine.
The next day I was excited to bird the Sandpoil River Valley. It is a well known area for eastern U.S. species whose range just makes it into WA in this riparian corredor. The best bird there for me was a calling Least Flycatcher. Misses were Northern Waterthrush, supposedly easy, but not for me that day, Red-eyed Vireo and Bobolink. Still it was great to explore a new area, and the overall birding was good.
About midday we took the turn east onto Wilson Creek Road to Freidlander Meadow, and had lunch and a sit down there. As we ate, and I studied the Red-crossbill flocks, Marian pointed out a large raptor. I oblgingly checked out what I figured was the Red-tailed Hawk that had been screaming, and was very happy to see my FOY Northern Goshawk zipping along the back side of the meadow. No photos as it kept popping behind trees, and gave only interrupted looks, but a clear-cut ID.
Just before lunch we had seen a Black Bear browsing beside the road, and the trip from lunch to the Inchelium Ferry across the Columbia River was uneventful. The ferry was pretty cool, and the drive down to Spokane was beautiful.
Saturday we headed up to Mt. Spokane State Park, and enjoyed the scenery, the short hikes, and another new area for me.
Sunday was maybe my favorite day of the trip. We birded Turnbull NWR in the AM, with lots of Gray Catbirds, waterfowl, and a nice scattering of Spokane County species.
After lunch we dipped into Whitman County, to fill out my county list there. Highlights were the two-track roads high with weeds in the wheat fields I chose from the DeLorme road atlas. We didn’t get high-centered, and on the way to Moses Lake for the night tried for Ferruginous Hawk at Wilson Creek (different place I think) but settled for a fly by FOY Black-crowned Night Heron.
I finished the trip with 5 FOY WA birds, 77 new Spokane County species (I started with only 10), 36 new Ferry County birds (83 now) and 22 new Whitman County species failing to make it over 50 species for the county as hot early afternoon was not a productive time there, and we only spent about 2 hours in the county.
It is always fun to explore new places, and Marian got a feel for what a birding road-trip is like. We got home safely, and I score the overall experience as quite good. Here is the route we took.
Good birding. Good day!
Episode #24 with Nick Bonono
In this episode Nick Bonono and I talk about his birding story, his recent trip to Alaska, his Connecticut Big Year experiences, his blog, Shorebirder.com as well as using NEXRAD weather radar to look at migration. Nick is a top birder, has a trip he is leading for Connecticut Audubon to sub-Saharan Africa, and is fun to talk with. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Here are some links and additional info related to the podcast episode.
Nick was kind enough to send supporting information in an email, and here is what he sent me.
Connecticut Audubon Society’s EcoTravel: https://www.ctaudubon.org/ecotravel-home/
You don’t have to be a Connecticut resident to join us! We have many travelers from other states.
My Blog: www.shorebirder.com
For those who enjoy pelagics, for an East Coast flavor:
1) Summer trips out of Cape Cod, where we often see White-faced Storm-Petrel and great seabird variety overall:
https://www.brooklinebirdclub.org/pelagic-trips-2/
2) For World Class Seabirding experience that’s the best on the east coast, go out of Hatteras, NC with Brian Patteson and Kate Sutherland:
As far as the Radar stuff goes:
Here is a primer from eBird – https://ebird.org/news/radar
I like to use the following site to view the maps:
http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/
It takes some playing around with to learn, but a good way to start is to check the following fields:
Product: 0.5 Reflectivity
Background: (doesn’t really matter)
End date: Today
End time: Most recent
Loop duration: 3-4 hours…this gives you a good timespan to see migration in action. You can view the “liftoff” as the sun sets, or you can view the much more gradual “descent” of birds as dawn approaches.
Play with these variables on a night of good migration. Nocturnal migration is light right now, but should get going sometime in August and really heat up Sep-Oct depending on your latitude.
Thanks. If you are able, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts so I can get feedback on the episode.
Thanks.
Ed
Why Birding- Notes on Episode #22
In episode #22 I address the question, “Why am I a birder?” I think it is a good question, and I try to give a coherent answer on the epidose. In this post I’ll leave some photos and additional information.
For me birding is a hobby, or passion, or obsession, it all depends on your point of view. In the episode I talk about some of the things I find alluring about being a birder. People are certainly a part of the attraction. I find most birders to be helpful, smart and fun to be around. When Ken and I go birding the conversation usually covers sports, politics, birds, and family, along with whatever else we are thinking about. Still, talk about birding often dominates.
Places are another big attraction.
Stumbling onto wonders not birds is also a part of the game.
Let me know your stories of why you are a birder, what keeps you going out birding, and why birding and not another hobby.
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #21 with Dr. Geoffrey Hill
Dr. Geoffrey Hill is an ornithology professor at Auburn University in Alabama as well as a longtime birder. Here is a link to our podcast episode.
I’ll spend most of this post discussing his theory of speciation in birds called the Mitonuclear Compatability Species Concept. I had a fair understanding of mitochondrial function and DNA prior to reading a couple of the essays and articles linked in Dr. Hill’s blogs, but after reading them I feel better able to summarize the concept.
Here are links to a couple of the articles I like.
This article lays out the issues pretty well: Sexy Beasts: or Why Do The Most Flamboyant Males Have The Evolutionary Edge.
This is Dr. Hill’s rebuttal to an old-timer expert who shot down his theory in another article. Defending the Mitonuclear Compatability Species Concept
Here is my take on the theory.
Dr Hill was faced with a few observations that existing theories of speciation and evolution did not reconcile well. These include:
-Despide containing a tiny fraction of the DNA of an individual bird, the mitocondrial DNA “bar code”, i.e. the exact sequence of the purine and pyrimdine code components for DNA experssion, is extremely accurate in identifying individual species. This seems impossible, but is true.
-In birds and butterflies, two species where extreme color and shape sexual adaptations seem to be most prevalent, the males carry the two similar sex chromosomes and the female is the sex with one larger sex chromosome and one different small sex chromosome. In birds WW is male Wz is female, vs in most other animals XX is female, and XY is male.
He also found that although the mitichondria contains over 1000 proteins, only about 15 are coded for in the mitochondrial DNA, and most of the rest are coded for in the W chromosome of the nucleus.
His theory postulates that since efficient energy production requires efficient mitochondrial function, that a near-perfect compatability between the mitochondrial proteins coded for in the nucleus and the mitochondria must exist. When an offspring comes from same species adults, the male has two and the female one copy of same-species W chromosome, and a compatable mitochondrial protein collection is assured. When two related species mate, the offspring has either one (the male offspring with W1W2) or no (the female with W1y2) genes. In the case of the male there is likely enough same-sex mitochondrial proteins produced to have a viable though non-competative mitochondrial energy production. In the female with no closely compatible W chromosome coded mitochondrial DNA to pair with the mitochondrial coded proteins which came from the mother of a different species the offspring is likely not viable and does not survive at all This is consistent with the observation that almost all living hybrid birds are male.
Minor mutations within a species may produce more or less efficient mitochondrial function, giving more or less competative individuals in terms of energy production efficiency, and allowing gradual evolution, but mating between species will essentially always lead to non-competative individuals that die off quickly and don’t lead to ongoing blending of the species.
It also helps understand why highly flamboyant feathers and bright colors, that may put a male at a disadvantage in camoflage, capturing prey, or other day-to-day necessities prove to a female that they are more fit as DNA donors than more drably adorned males. It’s because they are so efficient, and so fit that they can afford the counterproductive adornments.
True or not I like the ingenuity and outside-the-box thinking. I also like that a top ornithology thought leader is also an avid birder!
Good birding. Good day!