Dan Cooper is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #87, and we talk about his youth as a young California birder in the fabulous birding community that was California in the latter 20th century, about his career as an ecological monitoring and research consultant, and about birding passions. Enjoy.
I feel like every time I get to talk with a birder who grew up birding in California during what I think of as the golden age of birding there, the 1960-1990 timer range, I learn lots, enjoy the stories, and am a bit envious of their experiences. Dan Cooper was a part of that birding community, and as a podcast guest shares some of his stories of that time and more.
We talk about a mutual friend John Sterling (epoisode #10) who was one of the trip leaders and guides on a trip I took to Kenya with three prior guests, Bruce LaBar, Heather Ballash and Marcus Roening. They are also the Pierce County birders I talk about in the introduction.
It was fun to hear Dan talk about his achieving his PhD recently on the topic of urban birds. Here is an article about the Goshawks of Berlin, and here is a link to the ABC Birding club meeting with Ed Deal when he talked about his study of Cooper’s Hawks in the Seattle Area.
I wish you all a great New Year, great birding and safe travels as time passes.
Category: Uncategorized
The Bird Banter Podcast #76: 5 Common Birds Supplemental Info
On this episode I talk about 5 species of birds that can be found in many if not most parts of the United States, that most people in the U.S., birder or non-birder will be familiar with, and try to share information about these species that will be of interest to not just birders but their families, friends and others who wonder what’s with these birders anyway. Enjoy, and feel free to share with your less-avid birding friends.
Here are some photos of the 5 species discussed:
Here is the Thanksgiving Episode of The Bird Banter Podcast with the Wild Turkey Story in the U.S.
Birding Since Return from Chelan
A bit of catch up here since it’s been about 3 weeks since I got back from a week at Chelan. It’s been mostly about shorebirds and sound-watching in Pierce County since then, as the juvenile shorebirds are moving through, and we are starging to get jaegers back. So here are the highlights of the fall migration recently.
In the first week back I tried a couple of times for Sanderling at Chamber’s Bay Beach Access, but had no luck until the next Friday when I managed to find one on a walk with Marian.
While I was there I got a text about a Baird’s Sandpiper at Levee Pond, and dashed there, where just after I got there Bruce joined Marian and me to look at this bird.
This made for a nice 2-FOY Pierce birds in a day.
The day prior to getting these two species I joined the Theler Wetlands walk with Fay, Diane, Ken and John R. for a nice morning there. I managed three Mason firsts, Merlin, Bushtit and Ring-necked Pheasant. This is the only one with a photo.
A couple of days later, Aug. 30th brought a sighting of Black Phoebe at the 56th St Stormewater area, and Marian and I got there just before dark, and with patience (I had tried without patience earlier in the day) we spotted not just the BLPH but also a Sora.
The next great bird was at the McNeil Overlook where after Marcus and I searched for a while, Heather on taking over their scope almost immediately spotted these two Marbled Godwits.
Though distant you can get a feel for the pretty spectacular light for the great distance. Their warm brownish color just popped.
Just after I left them for Marcus to finish his conference call, they called me to say that they had a Heermann’s Gull. It has flown out of sight before I got back and I missed this one.
Since then seawatching, mostly from Dune’s Peninsula has dominated the Pierce County birding scene. Parasitic Jaegers have moved in to take advantage of the lingering Caspian Terns. On Sept 5th I was tied up recording an episode of the podcast when the text chain alerted us of Will, Marcus and Heather having THIRTEEN PAJAs from Dunes. After I finished the episode I dashed over and managed to see just two of them, still one was a nice close fly-by.
Shortly after this Heermann’s Gull flew right in front of us to give another 2-FOY Pierce birds.
Nothing new since then, but yesterday was a really pretty morning at 56th St and the light was perfect for some photos.
Additional Notes on Episode #61 with Stefan Schlick
In this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast with Stefan Schlick we talk about Stefan’s evolution from a relatively causal birdwatcher in Germany to an avid and keen birder after moving to the U.S. He is now a full time trip leader based near Portland, OR and leads trips for the Portland Audubon Society, as well as for other organizations and on his own.
I know Stefan from many winter trips to the Okanogan area of eastern WA, where Ken Brown (see episodes #2 and #46) and I would compare notes with Stefan at the Omak Inn after our first day of leading our groups around the area. Stefan was usually leading trips for WOS, and Ken and I leading trips for Ken’s birding class or more recently for the ABC Birding Club.
Stefan is an avid county birder, has spent time living in Florida, California and lots of time birding in Arizona, so has lots of field time in many of the top ABA birding spots. He is also becoming interested in finding and identifying dragonflies and butterflies, and we talk a bit about these as offshoots of birding.
Here are links to some of the things we talk about on the episode:
Portland Audubon Society Field Trips
“Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest” by Robert Michael Pyle and Caitlin LaBar https://www.amazon.com/Butterflies-Pacific-Northwest-Timber-Press/dp/1604696931/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=butterflies+of+the+pacific+northwest&qid=1590101437&sr=8-1
“Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon” by Cary Kerst and Steve Gordon https://www.amazon.com/Dragonflies-Damselflies-Oregon-Field-Guide/dp/0870715895
Here is a link to Stefan’s blog. http://birdmeister.wordpress.com
You can contact Stefan by email at: greenfant – at – hotmail- dot- com.
Notes on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #17 with Shawneen Finnegan.
The Bird Banter Episode #17 with Shawneen Finnegan was one of my highlights so far in doing the podcast. I first met Shawneen on a 5-day pelagic trip on the Searcher out of San Diego in Sept 2016. This is was a remarkable pelagic experience, very different in many ways from a typical one-day, in-and-out pelagic trip. On this trip we left San Diego on a Monday afternoon, and returned Friday morning. With that much time at sea, we were able to spend long periods of time far from shore, both much longet time frames, and much farther from shore than is possible on a one-day trip. This allows much longer looks at desirable species, chances for really rare species best seen 100+ miles from shore, and just overall a very different experience. The trip had five expert pelagic birders as leaders-spotters, and Shawneen was the guest leader. My understanding is that the other four leaders go regularly on this trip, and one guest leader is invited each year. I hit the jackpot with having Shawneen along. She was not only expert, but was really a pleasure to get to visit with.
On this trip I had three lifers, Townsend’s Storm Petrel, and Guadalupes and Craveri’s Murrelets, and several great species I’d seen before incluiding Red-billed Tropicbird, Black and Least Storm Petrel, and Scripp’s Murrelet. In addition we had great looks at more common pelagic species as well as other rarities I’d seen before including Long-tailed Jaeger, Red-billed Tropicbird, and Scripps Murrelet. The incredible whale show we encountered was probably the most memorable part of the trip.
I didn’t see Shawneen again until the WOS meeting last weekend. Shawneen is on the Washington State Rare Birds Committee and I had the chance to sit at a table with Shawneen and her husband David Irons at dinner on Saturday. It was fun to hear the birding stories with Bruce Labar, Ken Brown and these two.
Here is a link to a flickr album with lots of photos from the trip. https://www.flickr.com/photos/43201721@N02/albums/72157672564115722
Shawneen is an accomplished artist. She has had work published in several birding related works, and most recently has started to do commission pet paintings. You can check out her work and order a commission at her web site, ShawneenFinnegan.com
Here are some photos from the recent WOS trip.
Check out the new Peterson Series Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America by Saturday’s WOS keynote speaker Nathan Pieplow.
I hope to have Shawneen’s podcast episode published by Monday May 20th and expect to have Khahn Tran on next week as my guest. Until then, good birding, and good day.
The Bird Banter Podcast #16 with Alvaro Jaramillo Additional Info.
On this episode Alvaro and I talk about his remarkable birding story, starting as a young birder, continuine into a PhD study which he left midway through to finish writing the definative book on Blackbirds of the New World, and going on to be a birding trip guide and pelagic trip organizer and leader. You can find his tours on the Alvaro’s Adventures website. Alvaro more recently published both English and Spanish versions of a field guide to the Birds of Chile. \
I trust you’ll enjoy hearing Alvaro on the podcast. Thanks for listening. Good birding and good day!
Black Phoebe (finally)
Today with an assist to Michael C. I finally found the Black Phoebe at the area across the road from the Gog. Not a lot else happening at the main area today, but it was nice to walk the area with Michael, and hear about his recent birding travels.
A Drive to the Snow Today
This midday I was able to get out birding, and since I needed to go to Puyallup anyway I kept going east to Ashford hoping for maybe a Pine grosbeak, N. Pygmy owl or Townsend’s solitaire. What I got was beautiful snowy scenery adn the dipper at the usual Elbe stop. One was singing under the bridge in response to a recording, but didn’t come into view. Another was far upstream and the only photos I could find the bird in were in flight.
Overall a nice drive on a cold snowy day.
Quick Outing for Glaucous Gull and Peregrine Falcon
Abut noon, also low tide, I dashed over to the 11th St. Bridge to look for the Glaucous gull, but it was not with thei 60-70 bathing gulls. While there I did manage a distant look at the Tacoma resident Peregrine falcon high on a brown building to the right of where it is often found on the tall white building with window ledges.
Since the GLGU was not at the bridge, I decided on a quick try at the Gog, and sure enough I got pretty nice looks at the gull on the roof with a large flock of big guys. I managed digiscope photos, but on trying with the camera, couldn’t see it and on looking back in the scope, it had moved out of sight.
This brings me to 74 for Pierce in 2018.
Chambers Bay Beach Access for Sanderling
Today, finally, after hoping for the last 2 days that the Sanderlings, found by Bruce Labar and since seen by seemingly all the other Pierce County birders, I got down to Chambers Bay to try for them. I was also hoping the Black turnstone Bruce had might still be around, but since others had not listed this bird I was doubtful.
It was pretty easy as the 3 juv. Sanderlings were with the small flock of WESA and LESA midway down the North Beach side. I could not find the SESA that others had seen, but was pretty happy with the Pierce FOY Sanderlings. They were obliging for photos too.
