Category: Blog

Life Roads in Eastern WA

Marian spotted this moose near the end of the auto loop at Turnbull NWR. I had not expected there to be moose there.

Last weekend I headed east of the Cascades to bird some areas I had not visited before, and to introduce a friend and new birder to the experience of a birding trip. We found new roads, good birds and Marian survived, so overall I consider the trip a success.

Gray Catbirds seemed easy to find in all three counties we birded on this trip.

We started going north to Hwy 20, the North Cascades Highway. The first birding stop was at the Goodell Creek Bridge near Newhalem. This is one of the best places in WA to see Black Swift. Black Swifts are believed to be breed only in nests behind waterfalls, and forage far and wide espeicially high up, so are tough to go find. It seems more often they are seen almost by accident, looking up into the sky on overcast days near the mountains. Today I lucked out. As I munched a PB&J sandwich on the bridge a single BLSW flew by, among many more Violet-green Swallows.
Wild Turkeys were hard to miss each day.

Next stop was at Washington Pass. I had never really stopped there before, but David Poortinga had reported a Spruce Grouse there a month prior, and it was a good half way stop for the day to stretch, so we pulled off on the Chelan County side and explored a bit. The meadow on the west side of the entrance road was lush, moist, and beautiful. A Spotted Sandpiper teetered on a stump in the middle of the meadow. Above the parking lot is a nice short hike to vistas in several directions, that was quite spectacular.
A small portion of the vista from Washington Pass overlook.

From there we headed on to Republic, where I thought I had reserved a room. As I got near, I brought up my Priceline app to get exact directions, and was momentarily confused when the map showed it was 1 day, 3 hours to the destination. It turns out I had a reservation in Republic, Missouri. Not helpful, and so we had to settle for the Honeymoon Suite at a low quality place. I felt like a newbie, egg on face. Still, a place to sleep was fine.
Not the room I had envisioned, but any port in a storm.

The next day I was excited to bird the Sandpoil River Valley. It is a well known area for eastern U.S. species whose range just makes it into WA in this riparian corredor. The best bird there for me was a calling Least Flycatcher. Misses were Northern Waterthrush, supposedly easy, but not for me that day, Red-eyed Vireo and Bobolink. Still it was great to explore a new area, and the overall birding was good.
About midday we took the turn east onto Wilson Creek Road to Freidlander Meadow, and had lunch and a sit down there. As we ate, and I studied the Red-crossbill flocks, Marian pointed out a large raptor. I oblgingly checked out what I figured was the Red-tailed Hawk that had been screaming, and was very happy to see my FOY Northern Goshawk zipping along the back side of the meadow. No photos as it kept popping behind trees, and gave only interrupted looks, but a clear-cut ID.

Just before lunch we had seen a Black Bear browsing beside the road, and the trip from lunch to the Inchelium Ferry across the Columbia River was uneventful. The ferry was pretty cool, and the drive down to Spokane was beautiful.
Red-naped Sapsuckers were easy to find at Mt. Spokane S.P.

Saturday we headed up to Mt. Spokane State Park, and enjoyed the scenery, the short hikes, and another new area for me.
At our first stop after entering Turnbull NWR this American White Pelican was the only one we saw on the trip.

Sunday was maybe my favorite day of the trip. We birded Turnbull NWR in the AM, with lots of Gray Catbirds, waterfowl, and a nice scattering of Spokane County species.

After lunch we dipped into Whitman County, to fill out my county list there. Highlights were the two-track roads high with weeds in the wheat fields I chose from the DeLorme road atlas. We didn’t get high-centered, and on the way to Moses Lake for the night tried for Ferruginous Hawk at Wilson Creek (different place I think) but settled for a fly by FOY Black-crowned Night Heron.
I finished the trip with 5 FOY WA birds, 77 new Spokane County species (I started with only 10), 36 new Ferry County birds (83 now) and 22 new Whitman County species failing to make it over 50 species for the county as hot early afternoon was not a productive time there, and we only spent about 2 hours in the county.

Trumpeter Swans apparently breed in the NWR too.

We had trouble believing the trash incorporated into the Osprey Nest in Whitman County.

It is always fun to explore new places, and Marian got a feel for what a birding road-trip is like. We got home safely, and I score the overall experience as quite good. Here is the route we took.

Good birding. Good day!

More turkeys

Long-billed Dowichers at Turnbull.

Northern Harriers were abundant at Turnbull too.

Episode #24 with Nick Bonono


In this episode Nick Bonono and I talk about his birding story, his recent trip to Alaska, his Connecticut Big Year experiences, his blog, Shorebirder.com as well as using NEXRAD weather radar to look at migration. Nick is a top birder, has a trip he is leading for Connecticut Audubon to sub-Saharan Africa, and is fun to talk with. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Here are some links and additional info related to the podcast episode.

Nick was kind enough to send supporting information in an email, and here is what he sent me.

Connecticut Audubon Society’s EcoTravel: https://www.ctaudubon.org/ecotravel-home/
You don’t have to be a Connecticut resident to join us! We have many travelers from other states.

My Blog: www.shorebirder.com

For those who enjoy pelagics, for an East Coast flavor:
1) Summer trips out of Cape Cod, where we often see White-faced Storm-Petrel and great seabird variety overall:
https://www.brooklinebirdclub.org/pelagic-trips-2/
2) For World Class Seabirding experience that’s the best on the east coast, go out of Hatteras, NC with Brian Patteson and Kate Sutherland:

As far as the Radar stuff goes:
Here is a primer from eBird – https://ebird.org/news/radar
I like to use the following site to view the maps:
http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/

It takes some playing around with to learn, but a good way to start is to check the following fields:
Product: 0.5 Reflectivity
Background: (doesn’t really matter)
End date: Today
End time: Most recent
Loop duration: 3-4 hours…this gives you a good timespan to see migration in action. You can view the “liftoff” as the sun sets, or you can view the much more gradual “descent” of birds as dawn approaches.

Play with these variables on a night of good migration. Nocturnal migration is light right now, but should get going sometime in August and really heat up Sep-Oct depending on your latitude.

Thanks. If you are able, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts so I can get feedback on the episode.

Thanks.

Ed

Why Birding- Notes on Episode #22

On of many hundreds of dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions and other marine mammals seen on the 5-day pelagic trip out of San Diego I discuss in the episode.

In episode #22 I address the question, “Why am I a birder?” I think it is a good question, and I try to give a coherent answer on the epidose. In this post I’ll leave some photos and additional information.
For me birding is a hobby, or passion, or obsession, it all depends on your point of view. In the episode I talk about some of the things I find alluring about being a birder. People are certainly a part of the attraction. I find most birders to be helpful, smart and fun to be around. When Ken and I go birding the conversation usually covers sports, politics, birds, and family, along with whatever else we are thinking about. Still, talk about birding often dominates.
A Lorquin’s Admiral. It’s hard not to see butterflies when I’m birding in warm places.

Places are another big attraction.
A breakfast spot on the northern edge of the Sahara Desers on a recent Morocco birding trip.

The only shade for lunch this day in Morocco.

Stumbling onto wonders not birds is also a part of the game.
Myrtle Falls on a walk yesterday out of Paradise, Mt. Rainier N.P.

This is a photo of a garbage dump in Morocco. We found lots of great birds there.

Let me know your stories of why you are a birder, what keeps you going out birding, and why birding and not another hobby.

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #21 with Dr. Geoffrey Hill

Dr. Geoffrey Hill is an ornithology professor at Auburn University in Alabama as well as a longtime birder. Here is a link to our podcast episode.

I’ll spend most of this post discussing his theory of speciation in birds called the Mitonuclear Compatability Species Concept. I had a fair understanding of mitochondrial function and DNA prior to reading a couple of the essays and articles linked in Dr. Hill’s blogs, but after reading them I feel better able to summarize the concept.
Here are links to a couple of the articles I like.

This article lays out the issues pretty well: Sexy Beasts: or Why Do The Most Flamboyant Males Have The Evolutionary Edge.

This is Dr. Hill’s rebuttal to an old-timer expert who shot down his theory in another article. Defending the Mitonuclear Compatability Species Concept

Here is my take on the theory.

Dr Hill was faced with a few observations that existing theories of speciation and evolution did not reconcile well. These include:
-Despide containing a tiny fraction of the DNA of an individual bird, the mitocondrial DNA “bar code”, i.e. the exact sequence of the purine and pyrimdine code components for DNA experssion, is extremely accurate in identifying individual species. This seems impossible, but is true.
-In birds and butterflies, two species where extreme color and shape sexual adaptations seem to be most prevalent, the males carry the two similar sex chromosomes and the female is the sex with one larger sex chromosome and one different small sex chromosome. In birds WW is male Wz is female, vs in most other animals XX is female, and XY is male.

He also found that although the mitichondria contains over 1000 proteins, only about 15 are coded for in the mitochondrial DNA, and most of the rest are coded for in the W chromosome of the nucleus.

His theory postulates that since efficient energy production requires efficient mitochondrial function, that a near-perfect compatability between the mitochondrial proteins coded for in the nucleus and the mitochondria must exist. When an offspring comes from same species adults, the male has two and the female one copy of same-species W chromosome, and a compatable mitochondrial protein collection is assured. When two related species mate, the offspring has either one (the male offspring with W1W2) or no (the female with W1y2) genes. In the case of the male there is likely enough same-sex mitochondrial proteins produced to have a viable though non-competative mitochondrial energy production. In the female with no closely compatible W chromosome coded mitochondrial DNA to pair with the mitochondrial coded proteins which came from the mother of a different species the offspring is likely not viable and does not survive at all This is consistent with the observation that almost all living hybrid birds are male.

Minor mutations within a species may produce more or less efficient mitochondrial function, giving more or less competative individuals in terms of energy production efficiency, and allowing gradual evolution, but mating between species will essentially always lead to non-competative individuals that die off quickly and don’t lead to ongoing blending of the species.

It also helps understand why highly flamboyant feathers and bright colors, that may put a male at a disadvantage in camoflage, capturing prey, or other day-to-day necessities prove to a female that they are more fit as DNA donors than more drably adorned males. It’s because they are so efficient, and so fit that they can afford the counterproductive adornments.

True or not I like the ingenuity and outside-the-box thinking. I also like that a top ornithology thought leader is also an avid birder!

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #20 with The Willettes

Laurel, Faye, Carol and Diane with Ken Brown, the birding instructor for the classes where most of the group met each other.


For my 20th episode I broke the trend of one guest, and invited three of the Willettes over to my condo for wine (the lure), snacks, to watch the sailboat races on Commencement Bay, and to record episode #20.
It’s a cool story, listen to hear that. Here I’ll post some photos of the Willettes. Photos are one thing never in short supply when they are along.
Here is Carol, Diane and Faye with me at an ABC Birding Club meeting.


This is Laurel, Faye and Diane in the outfits they wore to the podcast recording session. They had planned to wear the Citrene Warbler sweatshirts, but the 90+ degree weather prompted them to have the sweatshirts loosely draped and to wear matching “Willettes” designed t-shirts.
This is several Willettes with Will Brooks (episode #19) at his ABC talk.

Sergio from Raptours spoke at one of our meetings, with the obligatory Willettes group photo.

Lest you think the Willettes are all fashion and no birding, you need to know that they are all avid birders, listers, traveling birders, and volunteers. Thanks Willettes for a nice evening and doing the recording.

Laurel with Carol Smith in yet another matching T.

Enjoy.

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #19 with Brooks Episode Additional Details


Thursday Will Brooks and I recorded an episode for The Bird Banter Podcast, and I expect it to be published Monday June 10th. Here are some details related to or relavent to the episode:

Here is a link to a recent WOS newsletter where Will published an article about his research. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews179.pdf

Here is a link to the ABC Birding club site and a writeup about his presentation to our club. http://abcbirding.com/will-brooks-tells-us-the-secrets-of-white-crowned-sparrows-march-26-2019/

This is a link to Will’s eBird profile.  https://ebird.org/pnw/profile/NDE3OTMx/US-WA-053

Some of the really cool birds Will found last year include:
-Long-tailed Jaeger at Point Defiance (links are to my eBird lists when I saw the birds) https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S48534820
-Clay-colored Sparrow and Rusty Blackbird at 134th Street in Puyallup. https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S49804659
-Glaucous Gull at the Puyallup River https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S41718496
-Short-eared Owl at McNeil St Trail Overlook. https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S50277333
-Yellow-breasted Chat in the Ohop Valley. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46280722

These are just a few that I could find on my 2018 Pierce County eBird list. I know there were many more I didn’t see of cannot recall.

I hope you enjoy the episode with Will.

Good birding. Good day!

Jefferson County Birding Today

Distant Seattle skyline as seen from the north overlook on Mt. Walker today. If you look closely you can see the space needle.

Ken and I spent a very nice day today in Jefferson County, WA birding primarily inland areas in hopes of adding to our meager county life lists. We had a number of highlights, but seeing chicks of two grouse species had to be near the top. This Ruffed Grouse chick was seen after a passing pickup truck driver told us about a “Ruffed-neck Grouse with chicks” just behind us on the road while we were trying to locate a tough-ID flycatcher.

Newly hatched Ruffed Grouse chick seen on Lord’s Lake Loop Road.

Shortly later on the drive up to Mt. Walker we came upon this Sooty Grouse chick along with the mom and another chick ahead of us on the road.

Sooty Grouse chick

We had a really good day with empids, seeing this Willow Flycatcher, along with Hammonds and Pacific Slope Flycathers. All were in full song. We also added Olive-sided Flycatcher and Western Wood-pewee for a great flycatcher day.

Willow Flycatcher
Same bird just taking flight.

We did well with woodpeckers also, with Hairy Woodpecker and this Red-breasted Sapsucker.

Red-breasted Sapsucker.

We wrapped up the day with about 31 new Jefferson County species for our county lists.

Tomorrow I get together with Will Brooks to record an episode of The Bird Banter Podcast.

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #17: Memorial Day Weekend Notes

Pigeon Guillemot on its nest. Most of the nests appeared to be deeper in burrows, and the sitting birds were not visible, but this one was in plain sight.

On this episode Ed talks about Memorial Day weekend just past and memories of this weekend gone by, along with the recent ABC Birding Club presentation by Ken Brown (episodes #2 & #6) on bird names and avian nomenclature. Check out the ABC Birding website post on this talk.

The sandy bank with the burrows looked like this.

At Anderson Island this past weekend there were nesting Pigeon Guillemots. They make burrows in the sandy banks, along with Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and Ed happend onto two separate colonies with 20+ birds each.

The Willettes are a group of female birders in the ABC Club that travel together, drink wine together, bird together and dress in matching bird-related attire.

Laurel, Faye, Ken, Carol and Diane (4 Willettes and Ken)

Thanks for visiting.

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #17 Memorial Day Weekend Notes


Pigeon Guillemot on its nest. Most of the nests appeared to be deeper in burrows, and the sitting birds were not visible, but this one was in plain sight.

This weekend I visited Anderson Island with a new birding friend Marian, and we stubled upon two colonies of Pigeon Guillemots. These are our local breeding Alcid, a species that nests in burrows or cavities in sandy banks near salt water. Anderson Island is a heavily wooded island in the Puget Sound accessible by a short ferry ride from Steilacom, WA. It has lots of high sandy banks that seem perfect for PIGU to nest, and it was fun to see their colonies.

The sandy bank with the burrows looked like this.

Northern Rough-winges Swallows shared the sandy banks.

May Pierce County Big Day Delayed

Today Bruce Labar (see The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #3) and I did a low elevation Pierce County Big Day. Our goal was to try to see as many species as we could in one day without going to the mountain (Mt. Rainier) and with a level of effort such that we could enjoy ourselves. We understood that for a May Pierce County Big Day we were at a disadvantage by waiting until May 18th. By this date most waterfowl, gulls, loons, alcids and shorebirds have already left for their breeding grounds, and in the past we have tried to time our May Big Day a week or so earlier to catch the lingering species in these groups of birds while delaying long enough to get many of the returning breeding birds.

Western Meadowlark from Area 13 JBLM

We waited until today because last weekend we were at the WOS Conference in Moses Lake, and a combination our schedules, weather and convenience had us wait until today. We feel we had a great day all things considered, and at 101 species identified we feel good about our results.
We started the day at Puget Park, where a Barred Owl flew right in for a look after our first playing of a recorded call.
Laxuli Bunting at Area 15 JBLM

We made many stops, with 24 eBird lists, and the route was from Puget Park to Point Defiance to Fox Island with a stop at Adam Tallman Park, to Titlow Park, Chamber’s Creek, Steilacom Park and then McNeil Overlook, to JBLM including Spanaway Marsh, Range 72, Muck Creek, Areas 15 and 13, then back to Tacoma and Fife to wrap up the big day about 5:15 PM.
Northern Bobwhite from Muck Creek on JBLM

Best birds were the Barred Owl, lingering Pacific Loons and Common Murre at Fox Island, Marbled Murrelets at Titlow Beach and also in Steilacom, Vesper Sparrow, Western Kingbird, Lazuli Bunting and Sora at JBLM, and a Peregrine Falcon in downtown Tacoma. Here are some photos from the day.
Lazuli Bunting from Area 15 JBLM

Western Kingbird

Good Birding. Good Day!