Tag: conservation

The Bird Banter Podcast #179 with Dr. Abby Darrah Additional Info.


Thanks for listening. I had a blast talking with Abby, and learning about her work with Black Skimmers and Least Terns in the gulf beaches of Mississippi.

Here are some Black Skimmers Ken Brown and I saw after our trip on the Searcher, the trip I recommend to Abby.

You can read about the trip on the Searcher on my trip report on the BirdBanter.com site in my birding notes section.
Least Terns are the other species Abby talks about in detail on the episode. This photo was from a beach near Cape Hatteras N.C.

You can follow Abby on Facebook and contact her at the Audubon Delta contact page.
Black Skimmer Rynchops niger is an incredibly cool bird, one of my favorites. This is an excerpt from the Birds of the World monograph.

“The buoyant flight of this bird, coupled with its dog-like barks, prompted R. C. Murphy (1) to describe Black Skimmers as “unworldly…aerial beagles hot on the scent of aerial rabbits.”

Its elongated wings and graceful flight pattern are captivating: the bird appears to almost flutter, languidly, yet is simultaneously agile and efficient. This long has captured the notice of naturalists, even of Charles Darwin, who, in observing skimmers foraging on a lake in Uruguay, described their flight as “dexterously managed” while they “ploughed up small fish with their projecting lower mandibles, and secured them with the upper half of their scissor-like bills”( Gould 1841).”
Here are links to some of the podcast episodes I mention on the podcast intro.

The Bird Banter Podcast #170 with Holly Garrod
The Bird Banter Podcast #129 with Jackie Lindsey and Charlie Wright of COASST
The Bird Banter Podcast #70 with Peter Hodum
The Bird Banter Podcast #26 wioth Tim Larson

Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #82 with Paul Bannick additional information


It seemed appropriate that the day after talking with Paul Bannick for The Bird Banter Podcast #82 Marian and I got a chance to see the Snowy Owl that has been roosting on rooftops in a Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle for a week or so. It brought to mind the studies done a few years ago about the Snowy Owls in the big invasion year, and how they often hunt sea ducks at night. Maybe this owl is hunting ducks on the nearby Green Lake at night, probably easy picking, and doing just fine in this urban setting.


Snowy Owls are such an iconic bird, and I am looking forward to seeing and reading Paul Bannick’s new book on the life history of Snowy Owls as well as the book on Great Gray Owls. I saw my WA first Great Gray Owl this year when Mike Denny took Ken Brown and me to a site to find them and we sat and recorded The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63 with Mike Denny sitting on the side of a logging road as recently fledged Great Gray Owls walked on branched very nearby.
On this episode Paul talks about his conservation work for Conservation Northwest, about the wildlife corridors they are working to create, and about newly reintroduced species like Gray Wolves, Wolverine and Fisher. I feel like I better understand the I-90 wildlife bridges that we see on our trips to E WA.
I’ve had other photographers on the podcast in the past, including Dorian Anderson, Nate Chappell and most recently with Idaho birder and photographer Darren Clark.

Please leave comments and give me feedback about this episode, the podcast in general, or if you have thoughts por suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from.
Until next time: Good birding and good day!