On The Bird Banter Podcast #129 Jackie Lindsey and Charlie Wright from COASST, the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and I talk about the program as well as Jackie’s background a little. You can hear Charlie on episode 116 from Nov of last year. Even though it seems to me that Charlie has been a mainstay of Washington birding forever, he is still a young birder. He is the data verifier for COASST, meaning that he is the person who confirms the identity of bird carcasses found on the beaches the coast walkers report. COASST has developed a guide for volunteers to use in identifying birds they find that is quite different from the way a birder goes about identifying a bird. They first put the bird into one of three foot types, and then have an algorithm from there to get to the correct species.
Volunteers agree to walk a specific beach area monthly, and attend a day long training program to learn how to ID and report their findings. We talk a bit about some of the unusual findings that volunteers have found. They include this first Washington Least Auklet that was the first bird Charlie reviewed after returning form his Alaska summer field work where he saw lots of Least Auklets.

We also talk about the Purple Gallinule wing that a volunteer found and sent in as an unknown.

COASST is always looking for volunteers and you can see if you might be interested or sign up here. This is the link to donate to their program, as they depend on outside funding to do their work.
Here are photos of the three types of foot of seabirds:
Lobed Toes

Webbed Toes

Non-lobed and Non-webbed Toes

Thanks for visiting. Good birding.