On the Bird Banter Podcast Episode #50 I talk with Nathanael Swecker, current president of the Tahoma Audubon Society about his birding story. He has birded on Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) extensively, and we talk about that birding resource in Pierce County, WA, as well as his experience with bird banding at the Morse Preserve, his work with Tahoma Audubon, and his experiences as an openly gay birder.
I found Nathanael an exceptionally articulate guest, and it was really fun to hear about his birding on JBLM. JBLM is a large (154 square miles of terrain in Pierce County) military reservation that was created by the merger of Fort Lewis (Army) and McChord Air Force Base in 2010. Over 40,000 service members are stationed at JBLM and there is extensive native habitat remaining that elsewhere in the county has been developed for agriculture, housing and other uses. Large stands of oak trees and relatively open prairie remain, and biologists there have maintained large bluebird trails, and protect habitat for the Streaked Horned Lark subspecies and the Taylor’s Checkerspot butterfly. Here is an article about the butterfly.
Nathanael is also the president of Tahoma Audubon Society, the local Audubon Society in Tacoma, where I live.
We talk briefly about his experiences as an openly gay male birder, which seem to have been overall not hostile or problematic. Here is an ABA article about this group. http://blog.aba.org/2016/07/gbna_rycenga.html
Nathanael has been an active bird bander at the Morse Preserve, and here is a link to info about that area.