Author: birdbanter

April 22, 2020

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #57 with “Puffin” Pete Salmansohn additional Info.

Pete Salmansohn, knows as Puffin Pete, is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #57. Pete has worked as an educator for National Audubon Society and other organizations, and has been especially involved in education about seabirds off the Maine Coast. We talk about the highly successful and ongoing reintroduction of Atlantic Puffins and other seabirds to breeding islands off the Maine Coast. Enjoy.
Seabirds are one of the true wonders of the world. These birds in many cases spend their lives at sea, coming to shore only to breed. The family called Alcids, or Alcidae, are the northern hemisphere equivalent of the southern hemisphere penguins. They may be less well known to non-birders, but are incredible creatures none-the-less. Atlantic Puffins are maybe the most colorful of the puffin family. We have Tufted Puffins and Horned Puffins in the Pacific, and in the Atlantic are the Atlantic Puffins. Our commonly seen Rhinoceros Auklet is relatively closely related to the puffins also.

Rhinoceros Auklet at Westport this Feb.

These days it is relatively easy to see Atlantic Puffins on a short boat ride from New Harbor, ME. This is the boat that Pete Salmansohn led trips for decades, and we talk about these on the episode. Here is a link to the company that offers these trips.

We talk about Hog Island Audubon Camp and here is a link to their site.
Here is the Project Puffin website link
Here is a link to a 2010 Smithsonian Magazine article on the Puffin Reintroduction.
Here is another article about the work of their project. I like this one a lot.
You can find both of Pete’s children’s books on Amazon on or other book sellers. Here is a link on Amazon to the Project Puffin book
Here is Saving Birds- Heros Around the World link.
You can find out about the Hudson Highlands Land Trust here.
We also mention the artist island Monhegan Island on the episode. Here is information about that fabulous place to visit.
Here are links to other Bird Banter Podcast Episodes we talked about:
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #26 with Tim Larson
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #44 with Clarice and Jerry Broadus
Enjoy Spring Migration.

Solitary Sandpiper from the muddy field in Fife mentioned in the intro of this episode.

Good birding. Good Day!

April 15, 2020

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #56 with Mike Bergin Additional Notes

On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #56 I talk with Mike Bergin, the creator and force behind 10,000 Birds, the largest and likely longest running birding blog anywhere. Mike is an avid birding traveler, and has birded at many of the top world birding hotspots. He has also developed a top team of “beat writers” who contribute regularly to 10,000 Birds.
My favorite column on 10,000 Birds is Mikes every Monday “Best Bird of the Weekend” column. It is fun to read, see what others in the comments section report as their “best bird” of the weekend, and then force me to think back about my weekend.
Mike has also contributed to the birding community with the no-longer-functioning Nature Blog Network, where he helped collect the top bloggers on nature subjects into one place to read. With the evolution of social media this has stopped being as useful, but it was a key resource for years.
Mike also wrote I and the Bird that in addition to being a component of 10,000 BIrds was was featured on the ABA website for years.
I hope you find my talk with Mike as enjoyable as it was for me to produce.
Good birding. Good day!

April 8, 2020

Supplemental Info: The Bird Banter Episode #55 with Suzie Gilbert.

On Episode #55 I talk with bird rehabilitator and author Suzie Gilbert. Here is a photo of Suzie with a Red-tailed Hawk.

I have had little to no experience with bird rehabilitation centers or the people who work at or operate these facilities prior to talking with Suzie Gilbert. On this episode Suzie tells us about how she came to be a bird rehab volunteer and over time came to own and operate her own rehab center out of her home. After I talked with Suzie and we agreed to do this episode I downloaded and read her latest novel, Unflappable, in the Kindle version. I read it over the weekend, a fun read and pretty much a page-turner as I raced to follow the fate of the heroine as she avoids police, National Wildlife personnel and a jealous abusive billionaire husband on a crazy quest type journey. After reading the novel I was even more excited to talk Suzie.
Here is a photo of the cover of her novel.

She did not disappoint me as a fun, informative and IMHO very interesting guest. I hope you enjoy.

You can buy Unflappable at Amazon or Barnes and Noble online.

Her website is SuzieGilbert.com

We talk about her time as a writer for 10,000 Birds, a top birding blog.

Here is a link to the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association website Suzie mentioned where you can learn lots about bird and other wildlife rehab.

Be sure to check out my blog post with more details about the episode at Birdbanter.com.

Until next time.

Good birding. Good day!

March 27, 2020

How Bushtits Keep Warm and Other Cool Stuff

Bushtit

I’m taking advantage of more time home than I usually experience (grrr think Covid-19 and “stay home”) to keep working my way through the Cornell University online ornithology course textbook. It is a wonderful text and course, with lots of online video aspects too. I hope to put out summary posts of some of what I’m learning using examples to make learning fun. On the section on thermoregulation Bushtits are used as an example, tweaking my interest in researching Bushtit trivia. Birds, like only mammals in the animal kingdom, are warm blooded, a.k.a. are endothermic homeotherms. This means that when they are in an environment warmer or cooler than their core temperature birds, just like us, need to do something to maintain their stable body temperature. There are exceptions, namely torpor-like states where birds allow themselves to cool down and slow their metabolic temperatures, but most birds find ways to maintain a body temperature without burning external fuels to heat their environment, or wearing warm clothes other than their own feathers.

Bushtit

I’ll focus here on birds staying warm, though how they stay cool is maybe even more interesting. The example used in the text was Bushtits. These tiny hyperactive birds weigh about 5.5 grams. A teaspoon of water weights 5 grams for comparison. This is only slightly more than the Anna’s Hummingbirds that also winter around our area. (4.3 grams) A study looked at Bushtits in the south and showed that they need to consume about 80% of their body weight in animal matter daily to maintain their body temp and metabolic demands at 20 degrees C, a pretty nice summer day here (68 F). It has to be higher in our near freezing winter weather.
Here are some tidbits about Bushtits and things they do to stay warm:
• There is some evidence that Bushtits sometimes build winter nests that are warmer than their breeding nests.
• Like other small birds they often huddle together in tightly packed protected areas on cold nights.
• In the daytime they are constantly moving, both to find enough food to burn to generate heat, but also to use their larger muscle masses to generate heat.
• There is no evidence that they gain body fat in the winter to add a layer of fat for warmth.
• It is not felt that they intentionally allow their body temp to drop at night.

Here is a table comparing some other common wintering birds in our area, with their weight in grams, a calculation of their surface area as if they were sphere shaped (obviously they are not, but for comparison I assume that the ratios are relatively appropriate as birds generally have the same body parts and general shape), and the ratio of surface area to mass.

American Robin

It seems cool to me that intuitively it seems that the bigger birds can remain relatively still, and the smaller birds seem to need to move around a lot. Likely lots of reasons, but thermoregulation has to be among the more important of these reasons.

Until next time, good birding, and good day.

March 25, 2020

Episode #54 with Nate Chappell Additional Info

On the Bird Banter Podcast Episode #54 I talk with Nate Chappell. Nate grew up in Tacoma, where I live, and he and his brother Chris were top young birders around the time I moved to Washington 30+ years ago. We talk about his experiences birding around Washington, Christmas Bird Counts, and especially about his experiences as a bird photographer. His tour company, Trogon Photo Tours leads tours all over the world, specializing in bird and other nature photography.
You can follow Nate on Facebook and Instagram

I find Nate’s photos on his Facebook page a reason to smile, and get wonderlust regularly. In this time of being home more, and social distancing, enjoy looking back at his posts.
Nate talks about using a high shutter speed to improve action photos on your camera as a simple trick to improve results.
Please leave a comment here, or better yet leave a review of the episode you listen to on your preferred podcast app.
Thanks.
Until next time.
Good birding and good day!

March 24, 2020

Social Distancing While Chasing Rare Birds in Pierce County Today

Both birds, this Northern Shrike, and the Say’s Phoebe seemed to enjoy being photographed and kept coming closer as I tried to get shots.

Today Bruce LaBar, my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episodes #3 and #46 alerted the rest of our Pierce County birding test chain participants that he had found a Say’s Phoebe on Area 13 on JBLM. This is a common Eastern WA species, that is only seen rarely in migration in Western WA. I had only seen one in Pierce previously, at Brown’s Point March 9, 2017 when one was found at Brown’s Point Lighthouse. (I had actually forgotten about this sighting until reminded by Marcus about it yesterday, at the Say’s spot on JBLM from a nice safe much >6′ distance outdoors.

Say’s Phoebe

While looking for the phoebe, Scott Saunders found a Northern Shrike, another tough Pierce bird, and so I got a 2-fer for FOY Pierce birds on the trip. It was really nice to break out of the house and see the beauty of the JBLM prairie as well as the two birds.

Western Meadowlark

Stay safe, stay well, and find a way to get out birding safely.

Northern Shrike, even heard singing!

March 22, 2020

Notes Supplemental to The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #53 with Ryan Merrill

Ryan Merrill and I talk about his birding story, birding in Washington State, and about his local patch birding. He also talks about his work on the Washington Bird Records Committee, and life as the husband/father in a family with a young child as a birder. Enjoy.

You can reach Ryan by e-mail: rjm284-at-gmail-dot-com

Here is a link to the Washington Bird Records Committee site:

This is info about the Seattle Audubon Society Young Birders activities:

The Swallow-tailed Gull Ryan found in WA made the local media in many places. Here is an example:

Ryan talks about Carkeek Park near his home in Seattle. Here is info about that local park: https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/carkeek-park

I hope you all stay well, get birding often, and until next time. Good birding. Good day!

March 20, 2020

A Trip to the Coast and PNP plus Pierce County Birding

It’s been a couple of weeks since I updated my online journal as like most of the world I’ve been engrossed in following this Covid-19 pandemic, have hunkered down staying close to home, and so have really been out less overall.
I did take a great trip to the coast last week with Bruce LaBar and Bill Tweit. I get out with Bruce pretty often, but far less with Bill. Bill is a long-time close friend of Bruce, and it was really fun to spend some time with him on a trip to the Westport area birding on March 4th. This was before recommendations to completely socially isolate came into effect, and we lucked out with a sunny calm and overall spectacular day. Highlights re birds were multiple Black-legged Kittiwakes, seen especially around Westport harbor, but really in many areas. One especially cooperative bird was perched on the railing of the marina floating walkway.
We also had two Glaucous Gulls at the same time at Grayland Beach while looking unsuccessfully for Snowy Plovers, lots of the usual Willets at Tokeland, the flock of Marbled Godwits in the corner of the marina near the start of the walk onto the docks, an unusual place we thought, Black Phoebe, American Bittern and both swan species on Brady Loop on the way home.
After a day of rest I joined Ken Brown for a day of Kitsap County birding, mostly a trip to Point-no-Point and places nearby. It was a windy but clear day, and highlights were many Boneparte’s Gulls, a pair of Black Turnstones seen at two different places, and a nice day with Ken.
Since then I’ve mostly birded Pierce County near home. On Feb 29th Marian and I cruised some of the Ft. Lewis Prairie and the highlight was FOY Western Bluebirds in a large returning flock, along with FOY Tree and Violet-green Swallows near Muck Creek.
Other places have included around Tacoma and then a trip to the base of Mt. Rainier with Marian yielded Canada Jay at feeders in Ashford, a pair of American Dippers under the Dashel River Bridge with one singing, and a fly-over of two Wilson’s Snipe over Hwy 7 on March 15.
Yesterday I birded at Chamber’s Creek, Farrell Marsh in Steilacom, and the Mountain View Cemetery in Lakewood, adding Band-tailed Pigeon, Purple Finch, Greater Yellowlegs and Red-breasted Sapsucker to my Pierce 2020 list.
Today Bruce LaBar and I got into the same car, not sure if this is social distancing compliant, and birded a couple of hours at Ft. Lewis, adding California Quail to my county year list.
Overall birding has helped get through the social distancing feeling of isolation. Come on migration!

March 6, 2020

Episode Notes on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #51 with Lane Epps and Corrie Fulsom-O’Keefe

Lane Epps and Corrie Fulsom-O’Keefe

On the Bird Banter Podcast Episode #51 I talk with two women who have maintained and nourished a long-time and long-distance birding relationship. They actually used a recent episode of this podcast to help plan a birding trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and interestingly on that podcast two of my best birding buddies and I talk about our trip. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Lane works with the Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge, and here is a link to their website.
Here is a link to the Brookline Birding Club website This is the club that hosted the bird walk in the Boston Gardens where Land and Corrie first birded together. This bird club is historically famous, having been established in 1913, and currently has over 1100 members.
Here is a link to the Bombay Hook NWR site mentioned in the episode This is a wonderful salt-marsh habitat refuge, and a place I remember for Saltmarsh Sparrow and biting green flies in July.
We talked briefly about the Farallon Islands on the episode, and this prompts me to mention the Bird Banter Podcast Episode #26 with Tim Larson where we talk about the House Mouse infestation of the island and the issues around eradication of this invasive pest there.

Lane talks briefly about the Mead Botanical Gardens and here is a link to their website.https://cityofwinterpark.org/departments/parks-recreation/parks-playgrounds/parks/mead-botanical-garden/
Stay tuned for the first musical episode of The Bird Banter Podcast coming up next when Stephanie Seymour is my guest and you will get to listen to some of the songs from her new album featuring 11 songs with bird names as titles! Too cool. You can get a sneak preview of her music and download the album here: There Are Birds

Until next time, good birding and good day!