On this episode Bob and I talk about his career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, his birding story and stories and more. How many birders have birded in Area 51? My guess is not many. His career path involved working at many of the great U.S. National Wildlife Refuges including the Loxahatchee NWR in Florida, the Wheeler NWR in Alabama, Kern NWR in California, Stillwater NWR in Nevada, and the Ridgefield and Columbia NWRs in Washington.
While Bob was at the Columbia NWR he helped Washington birder recognize how great the Washtucna Bassett Park oasis was for migrants. Every year in late August and the first half of September birders find eastern vagrants there, and Bob was one of the earlier regulars to haunt the area.
Ridgefield NWR is a great birding spot. Every winter I love to visit to see the Sandhill cranes, Tundra Swans, waterfowl, and raptors there. It is one of the regular places to find Red-shouldered Hawk in WA. The dusky race of the Canada Goose is there in good numbers too.
How many birders have birded on Area 51? Bob didn’t have to storm the area, he got permission to do a breeding bird atlas survey there. (spoiler- no extraterestials on his list) Hear about it on the episode, or just hear the snip of that time here.
On episode #119 I talk with Paula and Michael Webster. They are a couple who spent 5 years traveling around South America in a pop-up Toyota camper van, birding, making films, supporting conservation causes, and generally having the adventure of a lifetime. You’ll hear a bit about the year on this episode, but will be able to read much more in the soon-to-be-released book The Condor’s Feather: Traveling Wild in South America which you can preorder in the U.K. at Waterstones or in the U.S. on Amazon. I’ve already ordered my copy.
On the episode Michael and Paula talk about Buff-breasted Sandpipers. They are a species that is anticipated but not often seen in Washington. When we do see them it is almost always a juvenile bird in the fall. We saw this one this year in King County.\
If you want to see some great video of the trip here are some You Tube films by Paula.
Tango in the wind is a 30 minute fabulous video of the courtship rituals of the Hooded Grebe, one of the most endangered birds in South America. It is spectacular!
To see about their vehicle and trip check this out:
Here is some of the scenery of the Andes.
Thanks for following and listening.
Until next time; Good birding and good day!
I’ve been hoping to have Jim Danzenbaker on the podcast for some time, and finally made it happen now. Jim has been involved in Washington state birding for a couple of decades, has served as WOS president, is a long time pelagic trip leader for Westport Seabirds, and yet is likely better known outside the state.
Jim has been an active guide on Antarctic Peninsula cruises for Cheeseman Ecology Safaris for many years, and has led trips in Latin America for other tour companies. He is an accomplished pelagic birder and trip leader not just in WA but all along the west coast of the U.S. and abroad.
In addition Jim gathers information about all of the Christmas Bird Counts in Washington and posts this information on the WOS website here.
You can find Jim annually at the Rio Grand Bird Festival as a trip leader, and are likely to run across him if you get out birding anywhere in SW Washington.
You can reach out to Jim by phone 360 – 702 – 9395 or by email jdanzenbaker-at-gmail dot- com
Thanks for listening and good birding. Good day!
On this episode Joe Morlan and I talk about his multifaceted birding story. Joe has been a big part of the California birding community for several decades. You can read about some aspects of his career on the Who Was Who In California Birding website by Dan Roberson. Joe also has his own website with lots more links to articles about him and lots more here.
Joe taught birding classes at the College of San Francisco for over 40 years. I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or just be amazed when Joe told me it took 8 years to finish his course. Joe took the solid science and research based background that may have been developed while studying physics at MIT to his adult ed classes. He was old school, continuing to use slides rather than digital formats for his classses to the very end, just prior to Covid shutdowns.
Joe served on the California bird records committee, served as chairperson for 3 years, and now continues to contribute as webmaster. You can see the website at California Birds
Joe has published many articles on birds, a huge list is available on his website. Joe was influenced by the Ernst Mayr book Animal Species Evolution, which you can find at uesd bookstores online easily.
For close to 3 decades I’ve watched with joy and marvel as my guest Charlie Wright has grown from a precocious child birder in our county to a respected, talented and extraordinary leader of our birding community.
Charlie was involved with eBird from its very early days, with his first eBird list in 2006, and you can see his earliest eBird list, put in at a later date from his prior checklist, where he lists his spark bird Western Tanager which started it all for Charlie. Western Tanager male
He went on to become one of the first if not the first eBird regional reviewer for WA, and he has been instrumental in refining the filters and hotspots in WA on eBird. Charlie notes eBird as a project to support for birders, and you can see how to do that here.
Charlie talks about his work on research ships, his work on Alaskan Islands banding passerines, his work with Kitlitz Murrelet. Imaging racing in a small boat in the ocean off Alaska to capture a small murrelet off the water in the dark! Then flying in a helicopter to find their nests high on glaciers, and exploring Peregrine Falcon nests to see if the murrelets are being eaten by the falcons! Cool stuff.
Charlie is the data reviewer for COASST, a program for surveying the dead birds that are found on the Pacific coast beaches.
As always thanks for listening and reading.
Good birding and good day!
I had a chance to make a brief visit to Medellin, Colombia in early October of this year, with a dual purpose of visiting my son and his girl friend, and to sneak in a few days of birding in the country with more species (almost 2000) of any country in the world. I jumped at the chance, and previous guest Diego Calderón from Episode #106 was gracious enough to refer me to a terrific local guide, Iván Lau.
Iván was not only a terrific guide, talented, personable and really fun to bird with, but has agreed to be the guest on this episode.
We birded for 3 days in the outskirts of Medellin. Medellin is a large city, the second biggest in Colombia behind Bogata, with about 5 million people living there.
You can read more about the birding on my blog post about the trip on the Ed’s Birding Notes post.
You can reach Iván on Instagram @ivanlaulovera or by email. ivanlaulovera@gmail.com
I have found that it can be easy, affordable and a great option to larger group tours to find and use a local guide on international birding trips where I feel a guide will really allow me to find and ID lots more birds and to do so safely and efficiently.
Thanks for listening and reading.
Good birding and good day!
Zach Poland is a top Oklahoma birder who was referred to me by recent guest Pete Janzen. In preparing to talk with Zach I read a blog post by another guest Blair Bernson about their day of birding on Blair’s quest to see 50 species of birds in a day in every state with a local birder.
Zach is a relatively young birder who manages to bird daily with a full time day job as a geologist and a young family. I have the greatest respect for birders who manage to balance these aspects of live well, and it looks like we could take counsel from Zach on this challenge.
Zach talks about several top Oklahoma birding sites. Here is a screen shot of a spread sheet Zach sent to me after we talked with tips on finding the 4 Longspur species in Oklahoma in winter.
Oklahoma Longspur Tips
It’s a bit small on the screen but I think might be useful.
He mentioned several eBird Hotspots. Here are some eBird links to these: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Sooner Lake (note there are several Sooner Lake hotspots in Oklahoma. Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Great Salt Plains State Park
I mention my Colombia birding in the intro. If you want to read more about that trip check out the Ed’s Birding Notes tab on this web site.
I also put out a request for suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from on the podcast. Suggestions with an introduction of some sort are optimal. I’m looking especially for guests from Montana, the Dakotas and Carolinas, and lots of other places. If you have ideas send me message.
Thanks for your support. Good birding and good day!
On this episode I talk about molt, the process by which birds replace their feathers each year. Replacing feathers is mandatory for all birds, and different species have different strategies for accomplishing this essential annual task. All birds undergo a basic molt every year, where they replace all of their feathers. The plumage they attain after this molt is called their “Basic Plumage.” In the most commonly used terminology, the Modified Humphrey-Parkes terminology, the molt by which feathers are changed is named for the plumage attained, so the molt into basic plumage is called the “pre-basic molt.”
Male Gadwall in basic plumage. The alternate plumage of most dabbling ducks is what we think of as their eclipse plumage. That’s why our fresh early winter ducks are so striking.
Some birds have an additional molt each year where they replace some of their feathers to achieve a different appearance. Many birders call this their “breeding plumage” and this plumage is often brighter and more showy than the basic plumage (but not always). This plumage is called the “alternate plumage” and the molt into alternate plumage is called the “pre-alternate molt.”
So birds either have “basic” or an “alternate” molt strategy.
All birds need to grow a first set of feathers that they need to be able to safely get out of the nest, and this is called the “juvenile plumage” so the process of growing these feathers is called the “pre-juvenile molt.” We usually don’t see this first molt except on web-cams or when watching a nest specifically, so it is not commonly thought about, but every bird has to go through a pre-juvenile molt to get their first set of feathers. In some species this first set of feathers, the “juvenile plumage” is retained for a full year or more until the first pre-basic molt into the first basic plumage at a year or more of age. Other birds undergo a special molt in their first year, usually shortly after fledging, into what is called a “formative plumage.” These species are said to have a complex molt strategy. Reasons for evolving this strategy are unclear, but probably allow a quick set of head and body feathers to be grown so that the birds can get out of the next faster than if they needed to grow a strong set of feathers that could last a full year. Then after fledging they replace some of most of these first set of feathers to look more like adults and to have feathers suited to last a full year. Maybe the initial juvenile feathers allow them to be obviously different and easily recognized by their parents to be fed while very young. The real reason may vary and is not completely understood, but most North American songbirds use this complex molt strategy, and are said to have a complex molt strategy.
So now you know that birds can be split into 4 groups of molt strategies:
Simple Basic: these birds grow a set of juvenile feathers that they keep until their first basic molt more or less a year later, and then have one complete basic molt each year after.
Simple Complex: these birds have one additional molt in their first year, from juvenile into a special one-time formative plumage, and then just one pre-basic molt each following year where they replace all of their feathers.
Simple Alternate: These birds retain their juvenile feathers through their first year until a first pre-alternate molt some time later, and then have one full “pre-basic molt” every year into their “Basic plumage” and another “pre-alternate molt” each year into their “alternate plumage.”
Complex Alternate: These birds have a one-time “Pre-alternate molt” after fledging into a “Formative Plumage” and then follow the same molt sequence described in the simple alternate strategy above.
Examples of birds with each strategy are below:
Simple Basic Simple Alternate Complex Basic Complex Alternate
Albatrosses Large White-headed Gulls Spotted Towhee Most common strategy for
Barn Owls our North American passerines
Petrels
Using this concept of thinking about the plumages you see in birds can really help understand what you are seeing. If you see an essentially perfectly feathered Turkey Vulture soaring overhead in July or August you can deduce that it is this year’s first cycle bird, because essentially all of the adults will have some degree of flight feather molt going on. In the winter if you are in a place where Osprey are wintering, only the first cycle juvenile birds will have all of their wing flight feathers intact, whereas all of the adults will have some feathers being replaced.
You know that many of our migratory song birds have spring and early summer plumages that are quite different from how we see them in the fall. In fall they are in their basic plumage, all new feathers. In the spring they have undergone their alternate molt and have some head and body feathers that are replaced and their appearance is noticeably changed.
There is a lot more to know about molt, but here I just want to touch on the basics. For lots more see either Howell’s book or this article he wrote on molt.
Here is the ABCBirding post I put up after one of Ken’s classes.
As I mentioned in the podcast episode, I’ll be travelling for a few weeks, and may not get another episode published until I’m home again. Until then, good birding and good day!
I enjoyed talking about birding Kansas with Pete Janzen this episode. Pete was really informative, and I learned a lot about a place I know little about prior to talking. The Kansas eBird list includes 458 species, and Pete has listed 437 of these. He talks about Kansas hotspots Quivira NWR and Cheyenne Bottoms, both fairly near his home in Wichita.
I did not know that Kansas has the largest remaining population of Lesser Prairie Chickens or that it was possible to see both species of prairie chicken on the same lek. If you need these species check out the tours Pete recommends on this website. You’ll not only see the birds, but support their conservation efforts.
As I mentioned I’m on the lookout for good birding guests from every state. If you know good candidates, help me reach out to them. Send me an email on the Contact page here. Here is the article I mentioned in the WFO newsletter about megafires and the history of western U.S. wildfires.
Thanks for listening. Until next time; Good birding and good day!
On The Bird Banter Podcast #111 I talk in the introduction about a recent pelagic birding trip on Westport Seabirds, the WA pelagic trip company. The fog was difficult in the morning, but by afternoon it has cleared and things picked up nicely. See my birding notes post for photos and details.
Mason Maron is my guest on this episode, and we talk about his birding story, his planned research into Gray-crowned Rosy Finch diet changes in the last 60 years, and about birding near WSU in Whitman County, WA.
Follow Mason on Instagram or see his photogarphy on his web site.
Peter Wimberger, a past guest on episode #30, has been doing research into ice worms. You can hear about this on this really cool article and audio link. It seems that ice worms are an important part of the diet of rosy finches on Mt. Rainier at least.
Mason talks about the Seattle Young Birders group. It is run through Seattle Audubon Society and you can see about this group here.
I’ll be sure to get back to listeners in a year or more after the research on Gray-crowned Rosy Finches is underway and give an update.
Until next time: Good birding and good day!
