Scott Downes is one of the top WA state listers with 440 WA species on his eBird list, and his daughter Sierra is an avid birder who has been among the top WA listers and birders for the last few years. We talk about the joys of birding as a father-daughter team, their experiences and their favorite birds seen together. Scott works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, largely in the Shrub-Steppe habitats. Sierra is a high-schooler who finds time to get out on many trips with her Dad too. Sierra was honored as the Patrick Sullivan Young Birder Award recipient a year ago, but due to Covid has had to postpone her planned attendance at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory Young Birders Camp Chiricahua until this summer. We talk about how Sierra and Scott made lemonade out of the lemon of the cancelled camp last year by taking an Arizona trip together.
Scott and Sierra both contributed to a great video on the Shrub-steppe habitat that is on You Tube:

We also talk about how Scott negotiated with Phil Anderson of Westport Seabirds to allow then 10 year old Sierra to take her first pelagic trip, experiencing the pelagic phenomenon off the WA coast at a young age. She did great and has been on several pelagic trips since.
The Downes’ are listers, and this led me to talk in the introduction about my big days of the last week. I posted in the Ed’s notes part of the birdbanter.com site with trip reports for anyone interested.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!