Author: birdbanter

County Birding in SE Washington, June 2023

Maybe my favorite bird of the trip, Lark Bunting in Columbia County on Jasper Mountain Road.

I’ve set a goal for myself for 2023 to wrap up the last 4 counties in WA to put me over 100 species reported in eBird for every Washington county. Not unexpectedly all of these counties are far from Tacoma in Pierce County where I live. Three of these counties are in SE Washington, an area I’ve birded primarily in winter when some of the northern visiting birds are possible. That said I made a trip to Asotin County in July 2020 when Marian and I camped at Field Springs State park, amnd between that and winter trips I have reported 134 species for the southeastern most WA county. That left Whitman, Garfield and Columbia counties as the other three SE counties where I had yet to see >100 species.
Marian had a family gathering in Wenachee for the weekend, and I decided to take advantage and hjead off birding.
On Thursday June 1 I headed out after a good nights sleep, not leaving until about 8 AM. I drove pretty much straight to Whitman County, with Kamiak Butte the planned first stop for the afternoon. I managed Lazuli Bunting and Brewer’s Blackbirds as roadside ticks on the entry road, then got to the park at 2:15. I had little idea what to expect, and it was a busy forested butte with two busloads of school children at the playground. That said I was pretty happy to immediately hear Veery singing, and lots of other bird song. ON a 2-hour hike I managed 12 county lifers, including Pacific Slope (I didn’t have the inclination to call them Cordillaran) and Hammond’s Flycatchers, and a good variety of forest species. On the ride back to Colfax I flushed a Wilson’s Snipe from a roadside ditch, and spotted a Wild Turkey beside the road.
Black-headed Grosbeak was a common sight and sound for the trip. I like the background for this photo.

After checking into the Best Western in Colfax, and getting Mexican food for dinner, I walked the Colfax Trail as the sun dropped, and finished the day with with Whitman County species #102 with a singing Canyon Wren on the cliff beside the trail.
This was the only eagle I saw on the trip.

The next morning I headed for Steptoe Butte, a place I’ve been wanting to see for years. It is a pretty cool place, and I got theere at 6:34, and it was cool and sunny. I walked near the bottom parking lot and then drove to the top and birded my way back down. It was spectacular, with great vistas of the Palouse, and lots of birds. Rock Wrens were singing everywhere near the top, Yellow-breasted Chats and Vesper Sparrow were great to see, and I left Whitman County with my list at 109 species
From there I drove back through Colfax to start my Garfield County birding at Central Ferry where Osprey, Violet-green and Cliff Swallows were easy county firsts. I drove down Deadman Creek, a nice backwater area with singing Common Yellowthroat, an American White Pelican, and the usual riparian species were added. I went to lunch at Willow Landing where I enjoyed Marian’s lasagna, and added Blue-winged Teal, Lazuli Bunting and really enjoyed a Yellow-breasted Chat that flew high in the air, singing loudly, and then fixed its wings upward and parachuted back to its perch like a skylark. A behavior I’d never seen. Just as I left it was fun to see a male Northern Harrier perched on a “Feel Free to Hunt” sign.
From here I headed for the higher elevations of the county, hoping for breeding species of the Ponderosa Pine forests and agricultural areas. My favorite stop was Bosley Grade Road, a forested area on a dirt road down a steep grade. It was pretty birdy, with a creek beside the road and I added 9 county firsts there, including typical singing birds, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers, Cassin’s and Warbling Vireos, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
I headed up Mountain Road, adding Western and Mountain Bluebirds, and Vesper Sparrow.
Mountain Bluebird

I headed back to Dayton, adding flycatchers (Eastern and Western Kingbirds and Say’s Phoebe) from the car on the ride as Columbia County birds, only to find that the Best Western rated had gone up to $200. + per night, so I settled for the barely adequate Blue Mountain Motel. I found a city park for dinner, and rather than spend time in the room, went to a nice city park with a fishing pond and riverside walk for a picnic dinner. The last of the lasagna was nice, as was the walk. I added Spotted Sandpiper and the easy swallows there.
Cedar Waxwing from Steptoe Butte

After a decent night’s sleep, I quickly birded Lewis & Clark SP for low elevation species, before I headed up Jasper Mountain Road for the morning. There I enjoyed a Cooper’s Hawk hopping around on the ground after what looked like recently fledged Brown-headed Cowbirds, singing Veerys, I’d never been in this area, so dlot’s of singing Pacific Slope (Cordillaran) Flycatchers and a calling Pileated Woodpecker. I decided to try Jasper Mountain rather than the Toucannon Road area which is more well known for birding. It worked out well, with good birding, beautiful scenery, and new places to see. An unexpected Lark Sparrow on a wire, lots of Mountain Bluebirds, and a nice variety of dry forest species were found. In the afternoon I headed for Toucannan Road area, adding Red-eyed Vireo and Turkey Vulture (this was the only TV sighting of the trip). By then I was a bit weary, and as I had my goal >100 species in each county I decided to head for home. I made a few stops on the way, partly to rest and stretch, and partly birding. Most interesting was a very quick stop at Palouse Falls SP to easily add White-throated Swift at the Para Ponds in Othello where FOY Lesser Yellowlegs was found, and hoped for Forester’s Tern was not.

I got home by 9:30 and was happy to sleep in my own bed.
Trip totals:
Whitman: 109 life, 67 for the trip.
Garfield: 110 life, 65 for the trip
Columbia 111 life, 66 for the trip.

Ed and Ken Go Birding: Hatteras Pelagics and a Sample of North Carolina

For many years Ken and I have hoped to get out on an east coast pelagic trip, specifically a Gulf Stream spring pelagic with Brian Patterson our of Hatteras, NC. Finally, this spring we made it happen, and on May 18 we flew to Raleigh-Durham on a red-eye (our morning flight was changed by Delta to a 10:45 PM departure) and by 6 AM on May 19 we had our rental car and headed east. We made a stop for a couple of hours at a cool place, the Alligator River NWR, where we eBirded 31 species on the Buffalo City Road access. It was great to dip our toes into the eastern U.S. birds.

Most of the rest of the visitors to this were looking for Black Bears.

From here we drove to Hatteras, where we narrowly escaped a bigger fiasco when Ken pulled off the side of the road, only to get stuck in the loose sand, bringing back memories of being stuck in the snow on the Waterville Plateau. This time instead of a local trucker dragging us out, a nice young woman stopped, and let us use her “”traction strips.” These are foldable plastic devices that we put under our front tires, and pretty easily backed out onto the pavement. A “save-and-a-beauty” moment.
We found a better spot to stop, and did a little shorebirding on Pea Island before calling it a day, to crash at a hotel in Buxton.
Up bright and early the next AM to meet the boat at the dock about a 25 minute drive from our hotel (we couldn’t get rooms on the weekend at Hatteras Village) only to learn at 5:15 AM that the trip was cancelled due to rain, high seas and high winds.
We spent the day birding on funes (the prior red-eye) and found a good spot (except for the ferocious mosquitos) at the Pea Island Visitor’s Center to walk out into the marsh on a path, dike and boardwalk. We saw 55 species
A likely eastern Willet

The most interesting place we visited IMO was the Ramp 43 &44 access area where we watched terns, gulls and shorebirds primarily. It was too windy to really look for Seaside Sparrow, a species that eluded us on this trip (I heard two) but it was fun to puzzle over terns and gulls.
Much of the sandy areas around were protected for Least Terns, Piping Plovers and Black Skimmer nesting. The LETE were nearly everywhere, and cool to watch their rapid wingbeat flight and eratic movements.

We were able to reschedule our cancelled boat trip for the following day, and got out for two straight days of pelagic birding. Trips were on the Snowy Petrel 2, a 62 foot boat that had excellent places to bird on both sides, a small area at the stern, and a large area at the bow. Inside seating only accomodated about 9 people, so with 25 birders and 2-3 spotters, most of us were outside. For most of the time aboard it was too rough to safely and comfortably be at the bow, and often one side was the “wet side” so birding mostly came along the sides. The two days were both rough, but different. On the first day we had big numbers of Black-capped Petrels, Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, and not many other birds. A couple of Band-rumped Storm-Petrels gave decent looks, a few Audubon’s and Cory’s Shearwaters, a very few Sooty Shearwaters, and one surprising Cape May Warbler rounded out the birds seen. A young local birder IDed the Cape May Warbler by its flight call, amazing even the spotters, and it was cool to cheer on this wayward warbler as it circled the boat for a few minutes.
Cory’s Shearwater- lifer for Ken.

Wilson’s Storm-Petrels

On the second day at sea it continued to be “unsettled” and there were considerably fewer pterodroma petrels in the first half of the day. About noon the call went out that a Trindade Petrel was approaching the boat from the stern. I had put my camera away because the temptation to take both hands off the railing and take photos was IMO dangerous with the boat lurching to and fro. The bird flew right up to the stern, seemed to look us over, and flew by the starboard side at close range. I got killer looks, but thought any photo op had passed. A few minutes later the bird reappeared, I went into the cabin to get my camera and managed passable photos, though nothing like others had on the first pass. This is a bird seen only a few times a year off Hatteras at best, and a great find.
Trindade Petrel dark morph (+/- 80% of birds in the Atlantic are dark morphs)

As the afternoon progressed we had a pair of jaegers, one Parasitic and one Pomerine give great shows, the POJA circling the boat at close range for seemingly an hour.
Adult light morph Parasitic Jaeger with nice pointed streamers.

A Pomerine Jaeger that hung out for a long time.

A Leach’s Storm-Petrel was seen pretty well by all, and near the end of our trip, on the way back to Hatteras we stumbled on this Masked Booby on the water.

We tried to get on the trip the next day, because the forcast was for the weather and seas to get worse every day for the rest of the week, but the trip was full. It was a blessing, as no new species were found, the seas were worse yet, and we had a nice day ashore. Winds were very high, and we spent some time birding sheltered areas on wooded trails before going out to the Salt Ponds to try for new gulls, terns or shorebirds. We added a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and then decided to try the beach by the old lighthouse. We found a spot partly sheltered by a dune, and did a sea watch for a couple of hours. We managed to see a Parasitic and a Pomerine Jaeger and several Sooty Shearwaters, but really nothing new.
That night we got notified that the next day’s pelagic was being cancelled early, as sea conditions were worsening. We took advantage and were able to cancel our reservations for the night of May 24th, and headed back to Alligator River NWR. We had a nice day birding there, birding several areas, seeing several new species for the trip including Black-throated Green Warbler, Prothonatary Warbler, Northern Parula, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Gray Catbird.
We spent the night in Dunn, N.C., a city just north of Fayetteville, N.C. where I spent a 6-week tour at the ROTC Advanced Camp at Ft. Bragg in the summer of 1975. This was a more pleasant stop, as we were primarily looking for Ken’s lifer Bachmann’s Sparrow. I had seen this bird on a Florida trip to visit my parents near Orlando on April Fools Day 2000, but Ken had not had a chance. We were at the vdry northern end of its range, and so it was not a sure thing. This species likes mature Long-leaf Pine forests, with an open understory but a fairly dense ground cover. Sure enough, after spending most of the morning in suboptimal habitat where the understory was thin and dry, we came on what looked perfect, and I managed to hear a singing bird.

This bird gave us a great show, singing and looking around.

We had a really nice day seeing a nice list of species with lot’s of great views.


From here it was back to Raleigh-Durham for the long flight home and late arrival.
Ken’s youngest son John picked us up at Seatac and got us home safely.

The Bird Banter Podcast #153 with Rebecca Heisman additional info.


Spring is a great time of year, and for birders it has the added attraction of the fast-paced, almost frantic at times migration of our bird species that winter south of us, and breed near us or north of us. Many of the neotropic migrants are decked out in their fresh breeding (“alternate” for us Humphrey-Parkes users) and seemingly every day brings new species and surprises.

Yellow Warblers, singing their “öh-me-pretty-pretty-me” song are on territory around here.

In the introduction I talk about the great migration watch site in Tacoma, Dune Peninsula.
It can be humbling to watch top birders like Charlie Wright and Will Brooks ID birds in flight at great distance or by their flight calls, but even for birders like me of lesser talent, it is really fun and exciting. (links are to the blog posts related to podcast episodes with them as guests). Here is a link to the eBird list of Charlie Wright on May 22, 2022 when he counted 4705 Western Tanagers, and Will had over 500 prior to when Charlie showed up at 9:13 AM. A massive flight day for this beautiful species.

A lousy photo to give an idea of what a Western Tanager overhead looks like in flight at Dune. Taken this spring by me.

This is what a Western Tanager male looks like in a better photo.

I really loved reading Flight Paths. I strongly recommend reading it for any birder or natural phenomenon lover who also likes good stories and to learn about how science leads to better understanding of nature.

Buy the book whereever you get your books, or on a link on Rebecca’s website.
One relatively new and exciting system for tracking the movement of birds (and other organisms) is the Motus system. It is a growing network of small, affordable receivers that can help track a bird as it moves in migration.
A graphc of the Motus receiver sites in North America.

Light level geolocators are pretty cool too. Read about them here or in Rebecca’s book.
To read more about thee Bird Genoscape Project use this hotlink. Here is a video that makes it easier to get a feel for the projects uses and goals.

Thanks for following and listening.
Good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #152 with Bryony Angell additional info.


On this episode I talk with Bryony Angell, Seattle area birder, writer and adovocate for women birding. Bryony writes professionally about many birding topics, but recently much of her focus has been on women in birding, as guides, as travelers, and in other leadership roles. She grew up in the Seattle area, the twin daughter of two birders, and we talk about her childhood trips to the Skagit River area, how the area has changed over the years, and her birding near home in Skagit County now.
You can check out Bryony’s website here. Use the contact page if you want to reach out to her.
We talk briefly about the Feminist Birding Clubs around the country. They have expanded to have clubs in many of the larger U.S. cities, and are proponents of inclusivity in the birding community.
Let me know if you have suggestions for guests or topics you’d like to hear on the podcast. Use the conact page above to get in touch.
Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #142 with Francis Canto Jr. Additional Info.

On this episode I talk with Francis Canto Jr., a birder and birding guide from Belize. He was recommended as a podcast guest by a listener, Juli DeGrummond, who recommended Francis after she took a Road Scholar birding trip with him in Belize. Francis is an avid birder and photographer. He was recognized by his country by being chosen as the photographer for the art on the countries current postage stamps, featuring a series of common Belize birds.
We talk about great places to go birding in Belize, and the Crooked Tree Wildlife Refuge, so check out this link to learn about this area.
You can find Francis on Facebook, and Instagram. He has a blogspot website also, The 501 Birder. Here is his eBird Profile.

The Bird Banter Podcast #151 with Dr. Jim Kettelkamp Additional Info.


On this episode I talk with Iowa birder and retired physician Dr. Jim Kettelkamp. Jim has rekindled his passion for birding, developed in his childhood, and become a top Johnson County, Iowa big year birder, as well as advocate for backyard habitat and visitor to several great ABA birding sites. We talk about all of this on the episode. One of the topics we talk about is the serious decline in grassland and insectivore bird species from Jim’s youthful birding to now. He mentions how the change in agriculture, from smaller farms with many hedgerows to giant farms with no habitat in sight, seems to be a major factor. This got me to remembering a visit to England a few years ago when I visited a large commercial farm. Although the scope of the farm was large, there were well established hedgerows between fields, and good numbers of birds using the habitat. I recall the owner talking about how this was financially viable due to subsidies and regulations that made if financially advantageous to leave these areas natural. In the agricultural areas of the U.S. that I have seen, the opposite seems to be true. Leaving fields fallow to recover is pretty common, but still there is little habitat other than bare fallow fields, with no shrubs or trees between the fields. Here is an article discussing some of the programs.
If anyone knows about similar programs in the U.S. I’d love to have you let me know about them. This Cropwatch article is the closest I can find.
You can reach out to Jim on Facebook here @jim.kettelkamp
Thanks for following The Bird Banter Podcast. Until next time, good birding and good day.

Central Washington Spring Day with Ken and Bruce

Today Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I left Tacoma at 6 Am to head east on what has recently been an annual trek for the three of us to get our FOY sage habitat species and a few early returning species for the year. Ken met me at my house, we picked up Bruce and headed east on Hwy 18 –> I-90, through Kittitas to the Old Vantage Hwy. Our first birding stop was at 8:41 AM at a spot we have had luck with in recent years, and we managed Brewer’s Sparrow and Sage Thrasher there, though it was less active than in past years. No luck with Vesper Sparrow or Loggerhead Shrike, a trend that continued all day with these two elusive species.
Next was just a bit east on the Old Vantage Hwy to the Wild Horse Wind Energy site. This area has been our most dependable spot for Sagebrush Sparrow in recent years, and it continued to produce with close-up looks at this favorite sparrow.

Sagebrush Sparrow



Shortly after a pair of Mountain Bluebirds gave a show, but only the female lent to good photos.
Mountain Bluebird

We made a few more stops on this road, but had little more success with new species. The area burned a couple of years ago, and the habitat is badly degraded.
From here we headed for Othello, with a stop on the way at the County Line Ponds, which gave us Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet as Sandhill Cranes gave an overhead show.
American Avocet

Black-necked Stilts

At Othello we were hoping for Yellow-headed and Tri-colored Blackbirds, Cinnamon Teal, and possibly shorebirds or other new year birds. These three obliged, though not for decent photos, and Canvassback, Cliff Swallow, and very distant looks at Bonaparte’s Gull were a nice bonus.
Two female aspect Canvassbacks in front of other ducks.

We then drove across the Columbia NWR, getting good looks at singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, and lots of great vistas.
This Ruby-crowned Kinglet was singing, something we usually have to go to the mountains to hear, but is sometimes heard in the spring.

We got much nicer looks than this photo shows of the uncommonly seen Ruby Crown of this species.

From here we picked up close in Clark’s Grebes, including one calling its hoarse one-syllable note at Lind Coulee, and then the real surprise and awe of the day was a gigantic flock of Snow Geese from the Dam at Pothole’s Reservoir. We first saw a white sheen on the lake, and thought it was an unusually bright sun reflection.
Distant Snow Goose Flock

We realized it was a gigantic flock of snow geese, estimated at >20,000 birds, with at least 3 “Blue Goose” morphs, and one FOY Greater White-fronted Goose in the flock.
Snow Geese

From here it was pretty much a drive home, with a pleasant surprise of a FOY Long-billed Curlew flying across the road that I spotted as Ken and Bruce were distracted, but they ID’ed correctly and we turned around to relocate the bird not too far from the road.
Long-billed Curlew

We made another stop to try for the previously missed Vesper Sparrow and Loggerhead Shrike off Old Vantage Hwy, but no luck and we got home safely about 7 PM.
A good day of birding with for me 14 FOY Washington State birds, a few less for Ken and Bruce who have been away from WA less than me. Always good to go birding with friends.
Here is the e-Bird trip list.

The Bird Banter Podcast #150: Ed Talks about a Winter Trip to the Florida Keys and Costa Rica


On this episode I go it without a guest, and talk about my 6-week winter getaway trip to Big Pine Key and Costa Rica. It was primarily a chance to visit family, get out of the Western Washington winter rain, and relax, but as a birder I of course managed a good amount of birding time too.
I had not been to the Florida Keys in the winter, so had no idea what to expect. I’d hoped to see some early migrants returning north to breed as March arrived, but saw mostly resident species and winter visitors.

The waders were great, with all 4 big white waters, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, white morph of Reddish Egret and the white morph of Great Blue Heron, along with juvenile Little-blue Herons.
Few warblers were seen, but Palm, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle’s race), and Prairie were common. Any chance to be in a part of the world not your usual home makes for fun birding, as common birds there are not the ones I see daily at home in WA.
In Costa Rica I had excellent birding on a 5-day trip with Carlos Ureña in the Quetzal Valley area, and near La Fortuna, especially at the Arenal Obseratory Lodge grounds.
It was great to have time with my children and their partners, as Jean lives in Costa Rica, and Brett is a nomad, travelling where he pleases and working online.
Check out the Ed’s Birding Notes tab above to see posts on some of the aspects of the trip.
I anticipate more typical episodes to follow, with great guests talking birding, so stay tuned. Thanks for listening.
To see some photos from the Costa Rica trip, check out this Flickr Album.
Flickr photos from Costa Rica

Two Days of Lowland’s West Coast Costa Rica Birding with Carlos Ureña

We wrapped up the 2-day trip with this stake-out Common Potoo. Somehow I had expected a much smaller bird. These guys are big. Greater Potoo must be gigantic.

It was a quick turn-around for Marian and me as we returned from a 3-day stay at Manuel Antonio with the family, to a 2-day birding trip with Carlos Ureña. We met Carlos at Elizabeth’s in Tinamaste, thanks to an early ride up by Brett, at 5 AM. We headed back through Dominical, turning north on Hwy 34, and were birding shortly after daylight. We stopped first by a large field where Carlos knew Red-breasted Meadowlarks are found, and they did not disappoint. Beautiful rose-red breasts, and many in the field.

Red-breastefd Meadowlark

A short dirt road toward the coast after that yielded excellent birding, including the targeted Pale-breasted Spinetail, and also great morning looks at 32 species total. Best IMO were Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, 4 White-throated Crakes, a Yellow-throated Elaenia, and Blue-black Grassquits with lots more Morelet’s Seedeaters.
Yellow-breasted Elaenia

Next stop was one of the trip highlights. We went to the Finca Martatima Rice Fields at Playa del Rey. The fields were mostly dry, but wet areas remained and the birding was really great. One of my hoped for trip birds, Southern Lapwing, were in a small flock very near the road. A very cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo posed for photos. Isthmian Wrens, Scrub Greenlet, Tropical Pewee, Northern Jacana, Purple Galinule, Gray-cowled Wood-rail, Green-breasted Mango, Groove-billed Ani and Wood Stork were among the list of 60 species there.

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat


We made a trip to Boca del Rio Parrita where our only gull of the visit so far was a fly-over Lauging Gull, and a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (wow!) posed. A few shorebirds padded my Costa Rica list, including Semi-palmated Plover, Willet, Whimbrel and Least Sandpiper, nice to see some birds I could ID.