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.