Category: Blog

Note Related to TBBP #10 with John Sterling.


John Sterling started birding at age 11 in California, during what I’ve always considered the golden age of modern U.S. birding, where a generation of young birders took birding to a new level. They explored known birding spots, and discovered many new hotspots. Looking for and chasing vagrants became a key part of the birding game in those days, and many California and ABA first species sightings were discovered. John, with the support of his Dad and many of the California birders of his youth, became a key part of that renaissance.
Don Roberson’s site Who Was Who in California Birding: 1965-1989.
He tells us about his remarkable career as a field ornithologist, with stories of the American tropics, California birding, research in the northern boreal forests, and his recent trip to China.
Here are photos from John’s web site of his trip to China last month. Here are his photos from the trip I went with him to Kenya in 2016.

Cocha Antshrike photo of a female from The Internet Bird Collection website gallery.

Here is a link to Cornell’s Neotropical Birds telling the story of the Cocha Antshrike that John was involved with the rediscovery of in the 1980’s in Equador that he talks about in the episode.

Brewers sparrow is the species I talk about in the introduction, and play the song from the Sibley App at the end of the episode. These are among the more drably marked LBJ’s (little brown jobs) we see in WA, and I don’t have any great personal photos, so here is a pic from the same site as the Cocha Antshrike above. Here is a link to the site for reference.

Brewer’s Sparrow photo, credit on link above.

Please leave comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thanks.

Good birding. Good day!

Notes Relating to TBBP Episode #9 with Shep Thorpe


In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #9 with Shep Thorpe we discussed the upcoming Moses Lake area WOS Annual Conference. A few factors to consider include:

Adams, Grant, Franklin, Kittitas and possibly Benton and Douglas Counties will be included in some of the field trips, so county listers take note, you can bulk up your WA county lists.

You can read about a typical Okanogan winter trip on the ABC site at http://abcbirding.com/jan-2019-north-central-trip/

The Billy Frank NWR where Shep leads Wednesday walks is a great birding spot. Here is a link to the eBird hotspot. If you look, you’ll see that Shep is the #1 eBird lister for this hotspot.

You can check Shep’s eBird Proile here.

More details to follow.

Golden Eagle; Up Close

An adult Golden Eagle seen today on Gorge Rd, Chelan, WA.

Golden Eagles are a species that is always special to enounter, but where most enocounters are of distant birds. They live in remote areas, and are often seen soaring high in the sky, or perched on a cliff so far away that the first question is whether I’m seeing a bird, not what species is the bird. Today on Gorge Road near Chelan, Washington when I stopped see if I could see the Chukar that were calling, a Golden Eagle was perched in a nearby tree.

I walked along the dirt road to get a better angle when I noted a path to an overlook of the canyon that was shielded by a rocky outcropping. I walked to a spot where the GOEA was maybe 30 yards away, and where I was mostly shielded from view for photos.


Sometimes when you just get out birding special things happen.


Good birding! Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #8 with Bill Tweit.

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #8 with Bill Tweit

In this episode host Ed Pullen talks with Bill Tweit about his birding experiences, especially with Westport Seabirds, and how it came to have the longest continuous database of pelagic seabirds in the world.  Bill is a great birder, first rate scientist, and wonderful story teller.  Enjoy the episode.

Annotated links to things discussed in the podcast:

On the bird banter website you can see photos from the Westport Seabirds Pelagic Trip discussed in this episode as well as read an account of the trip.   

Go to the website of Westport Seabirds to schedule your Washington Pelagic Trip, to look at historical sightings or to learn about pelagic birding off the Washington coast.    

Here is a place to look at the undersea topography off Gray’s Harbor, WA, i.e. Gray’s Canyon and the continental shelf areas discussed by Bill in the podcast.  Map of the ocean floor off WA coast 

This site discussed the current population and population trends for Short-tailed Albatross  Current data on STAL population 

Here is information about the AIS tracking system for boats at sea.    

Here is a site talking about techniques for setting long lines to reduce albatross entrapment 

Photo of adult with golden nape plumage Bill talks about on the podcast:   

A link to an online version of the 1909 Status of Washington Birds by Dawson & Bowles 

Here is a link to the ABC Birding Club website, the group mentioned by Bill and Ed near the end of the episode.  Ed is the webmaster of the site. 

Check out the blog post with photos from the pelagic trip discussed here: 

Westport Seabirds Pelagic Trip 3-16-2019: A Three Albatross Day!

Three species of albatross together. Laysan (the black and white bird at the lower left), Short-tailed (with the huge pink bill) and our common Black-footed Albatross on the top.

We had 2 (two!) Short-tailed Ablatross with a flock of over 100 Black-footed Albatross and at least 5 Laysan Albatross, for the albatross trifecta. The overall trip was very good, great weather, relatively calm seas, unusual for a March trip, partly sunny skies, and an extraordinarily talented group of leaders and participants on this boat. Still, the story of the trip was that we had 2 individual Short-tailed Albatross, of a species where in my lifetime there were only an estimated 40 or so birds living, none of them adults of this species. These birds nest exclusively on islands off the coast of Japan, and were nearly hunted into extinction by the late 1930’s when a total hunting ban started to be enforced. The population declined from millions of birds in the 1800’s, with a documented 5 million killed over 17 years in the early 20th century for their eggs, oil, and feathers.


Now per Bill Tweit, who is going to be my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast this week, the population has increased to approximately 2400 birds. So we saw just less than 1/1000th of the birds on earth together yesterday!


These are really big birds, making our common Black-footed Albatross seem relatively small in comparison, and have an outrageous bubble-gum pink bill that identifies them at a glance if seen well. I even recognized It was al first-time sighting before the trip leaders called it out by the huge pink bill.

We also had about 8 Laysan Albatross on the trip, with 5 in the flock by a fishing boat where the flock of albatross was located. These are themselves uncommmon birds in Washington and off the continental U.S. I saw my lifer ALAL only 2 years ago on a repositioning cruise, and my WA state bird last spring on a Westport Seabirds trip. To see 8 on one trip was really extraordinary.

To top off a terrific trip was a Manx Shearwater seen early in the day, 12 miles off shore on out way out. It was distant, giving good looks for maybe a minute as it flew away from the boat, much to distant for photos.

BLack-legged Kittiwake

Four Tuften Puffins, over a hundred Black-legged Kittiwakes, and good numbers of Northern Fulmars, Cassin’s Aucklets, and a surprisingly few Sooty Shearwater rounded out the species list.
This for a birder and a lister like me was an epic trip, great long looks at a rare and endangrered albatross made for a memorable day.

Oh! We also saw Fin and Gray Whales.

It was also Ken Brown’s birthday, see The Bird Banter Podcast #2 and #6 for more with and about Ken.
Good birding! Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #6: Ed Takes Ken Birding

Ken Brown and I went on a 6-day trip to Southern California. This trip was exactly the opposite of most of our prior trips together, when Ken did most of the planning and led the trips. I have spent some time in recent years in the area, and so planned and led this trip, with the goal of helping Ken see the area specialty birds, both native and introduced exotic species. I discuss the trip in the last episode of The Bird Banter Podcast, and here áre some photos of the trip.

One of the more recent exotic introduced specise to be accepted as “listable” by the ABA. Eguptian Goose.
A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #7 with Ben Lizdas Additional Info.

This is the photo of the Violet-green Swallow that I mention in the episode introduction.

In episode #7 Ben Lizdas is my guest. Ben is well known in the birding community as the optics expert formerly from Eagle Optics, and now with Redstart Birding, the optics and merchandise arm offshoot of Bird Watchers Digest.
In the episode Ben talks about his introduction to birding through immersion in the birding community, rubbing shoulders and going birding with many of the best known birders in the ABA community. He has attended most of the better known birding festivals, as well as many of the smaller festivals, and tells us about some of his favorites. He also hints at his enjoyment of winter sports, being a native of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, his enjoyment of having good food, culture and other amenities at his favorite birding destinations, and the amazing opportunities he has had to get to know the superstars of the ABA birding community.
Bill Thompson, the host of This Birding Life and Out There with the Birds, the two podcasts of Bird Watcher’s Digest, has dubbed Ben as the LeBron James of birding optics, and the moniker has stuck, because it is deserved. You have to be good to wear that jersey.
Be sure to listen to The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #7 With Ben Lizdas wherever your podcast feeds. Here is a link to the episode on the iTunes store.

Alternatively you can listen on Podbean using the player link below.

Wrapping up Southern California Trip

A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.

Sitting at the Orange County Airport, waiting to fly home. We had a great trip, with 179 species, including 9 lifers for Ken, and 6 new California life birds for me. 30 checklists, lots of fun, battled some poor weather, but overall a great trip and the planned topic for the next episode of The Brid Banter Podcast. Stay tuned.

One of the more recent exotic introduced specise to be accepted as “listable” by the ABA. Egyptian Goose.
A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.
A Cassin’s Aucklet too full of fish to take flight.
Black-vented Shearwater
Cactus Wrens at the Anza Borrego Visitor Center.

Enjoy the podcast. Good day. Good birding!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #5 with Dorian Anderson Supplemental Info.


Dorian Anderson on his Biking for the Birds Big Year in episode #5.
Dorian Anderson is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #5. I first met Dorian in person at the Rio Grande Birding Festival, where he was a keynote speaker, and followed his Biking for the Birds Big Year powered by Dorian (mostly by bike, some on foot) He amassed an amazing list of species while biking from Massachusetts in winter south to Florida, then across the south, up the west coast, and then into the mountain Midwest on an epic journey.
Be sure to check out his blog of the big year and his current website to stay in touch with his career.
Dorian is a fascinating guest, a deep thinker yet funny and relevant. Enjoy.