Tag: big year birding

The Bird Banter Podcast #164 with Dorian Anderson Additional Info.


Catching up with Dorian Anderson for another podcast episode was really fun, as it seems is pretty much any time I get to spend with Dorian. He is a likable, high-energy, funny and really smart person, and I was really happy that we got to talk again.
Buy Dorian’s bookhere.

Here is a link to the Tropical Birding business where Dorian guides both birding and photography tours.
I talk about Dorian’s posts about birding New Zealand and here is a link to his blog posts about that topic.
I had never heard about the Pop Tech conference, and think it looks pretty cool. Check it out here.
I’d love to see comments from listeners after you read Dorian’s book. Give me feedback and maybe I can mention your review on a future blog post.
Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #157 with Greg Harrington additional info.


On this episode I had fun talking to Greg about his birding story, really moving from an avid but novice birder to a proficient and passionate birder in just a few years. And what a few years they have been. Greg has done a Washington State big year in 2021 when he saw 367 species in WA, a number that until that year would have been the WA record, and has travelled to all of the lower-48 U.S. states to bird. See his eBird profile here, where you can also find his e-mail address.
We talk about A Birder’s Guide to Washington on the episode. You can find it online at the WOS website here, or buy it at Buteo Books here. ‘
We talk about the website BirdingQuiz.com and about Larkwire, two good resources to help learn bird identification.
The old but still fabulous book by Jerry Cooper, giving detailed planning and route info for U.S. birding trips is still available at Amazon. I couldn’t find it on Buteo.
If you have suggestions for guests on the podcast, or just want to reach out to me, use the contact page on this site.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #79 with Lynn Barber Additional Information

On this episode you’ll hear about Lynn Barber’s big years and more. Lynn is an insatiable big year birder, who has done big years in Texas, Alaska, South Dakota, the ABA and has books about the ABA Big Year and the Texas and Alaska Big Years that you can get directly from her by emailing her at dalybar@aol.com to get a signed copy, or on many of the online book sales stores. Lynn put up a supply for book tours just before Covid hit, so be kind and buy yours directly from her if you can.

Lynn has also served as the president of the Texas Ornighologic Society, is active now in the Anchorage Audubon, and offers to show visitors around Anchorage if you visit. I hope to take her up on that sometime.
Here is Lynn’s website.


Lynn’s first book about her ABA Big Year

Lynn’s book about 40 species of birds in danger.

Good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode#27 with the McQuades- Additional Information


A photo of the radar screen on the McQuade’s boat.

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:

A 30’ Robalo center console with twin 300hp Yamahas

This is the radar:

In Dave’s terms the Garmin xHD2 radar “is off the charts crazy.”

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:  .

Laura Keene’s blog site  

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

    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.