Category: Blog

The Bird Banter Podcast #168 with Liam Hutcheson Additional Info.

On this episode I talk with Liam Hutcheson, who just finished his record breaking Washington State big year.  We talk about his big year, highlights, misses and people.  Also about his birding story.  The prior WA record holder for most species seen in a calandar year was Will Brooks, and we talk about his big year on Episode #121. While talking with Liam I marveled at how interconnected our birding community is, and how helpful birders are to each other.  Pervious guests on the show who helped in one way or another with Liam’s birding and his big year include:

Bill Tweit episode #8 Bill is such an icon in Washington State birding that I felt so proud and happy to have him as one of my early guests. He is also just a really nice guy.

Shep Thorpe episode #9 In the next episode I continued my streak of both extraordinary WA birders, but also really nice people with Shep.

Ryan Rodriguez episode #47 Ryan has been my youngest guest on the podcast, at age 12 when we met and did the recording.

Ken Brown #2, Bruce LaBar #3 and I were with Liam on a trip in early 2023 with Jacob Miller to the southeast corner of WA to see winter specialties. 

For more details check out the BirdBanter.com blog post about this episode. 

Until next time, good birding!

The Bird Banter Podcast #167 with Marco Valtriani Additional Info.


I visited Italy over a decade ago with my wife Kay, who was also a birder, and we were pretty surprised at how few birds we were able to see. I learned while talking with Marco Valtriani, my guest on this episode that it was likely because we looked in all the wrong places for the season we visited, I believe in early October. I learned lots more and really enjoyed talking with Marco. He is a lead guide for Birding in Italy, a bird guide group who specialized in Italy, and especially taking visiting birders whose primary reason for visiting Italy may be other tourist activities, but who want to get in a day or more of birding and use the time optimally.
I learned that Italy has a lot of national park land set aside, but than much of it has been used for human activities over the centuries prior to being set aside. I also was pleased to learn that the practice of killing songbirds for food has been markedly curtailed and is a minimal issue today.
I also talk about this being the Christmas Bird Count Season, and my experiences and enjoyment from participating in CBCs. Consider joining a count near you, find one here.
You can read the Audubon summary report of last year’s CBCs here. For more granular data on any particular count here is a link.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding.

The Bird Banter Podcast #166 with Steve Hampton Additional Info.


On this episode Steve Hampton and I talk about a wide variety of topics. Maybe the most timely and of widespread interest was his experiences ad a member of the AOU Ad Hoc committee charged with the task “to develop a process that will allow the [AOS] to change harmful and exclusionary English bird names in a thoughtful and proactive way for species within AOS’s purview.” I enjoyed hearing Steve’s perspectives and experiences on the committee’s work. You can read the recommendation in full, and I recommend you do if the topic interests you here.
Steve is retired from his prior job in California, and retired in the Port Townsend area. He recently wrote a very thourough and informative post on his The Cottonwood Post blog about gull ID in the area. He also writes on issues of indigenoous peoples of the U.S. area on Memories of the People. You can contact Steve, and get links to both of his blogs and all three of the Facebook groups he helps administer at his personal/professional website Stephen-Carr-Hapmton.com.
Steve talks about the eBird trends section, and here is a link to that feature.
I mention a prior episode about the mouse eradication on the Farralone Islands, so here is a link to the episode with Tim Larson about that topic.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #165 with Rachel Hudson Additional Info.


On this episode Rachel and I talk about her years birding and growing up in East Texas, her move to Washington after high school, her interests in art, photography, birding and more.
Every time I’ve met Rachel in the field I’ve been impressed that she was an extremely quiet and almost shy but very competent birder. It was fun to get to see her one-on-one for the podcast episode. She is highly energetic, a good story teller, and was a lot of fun to feel like I now know her a little bit at least.
We talked briefly about her birding and friendship with Dalton Spencer, who was a prior guest on the podcast, and recently broke the Montana Big Year record.
The Vaux’s Swift project, Vaux Happening, has helped understand the movements both spring and fall of this migratory species in the western U.S. for over a decade. You can learn about it and volunteer to help at their website .
You can best reach out to Rachel by email lighteningdash09-at-yahoo-dot-com

The Bird Banter Podcast #164 with Dorian Anderson Additional Info.


Catching up with Dorian Anderson for another podcast episode was really fun, as it seems is pretty much any time I get to spend with Dorian. He is a likable, high-energy, funny and really smart person, and I was really happy that we got to talk again.
Buy Dorian’s bookhere.

Here is a link to the Tropical Birding business where Dorian guides both birding and photography tours.
I talk about Dorian’s posts about birding New Zealand and here is a link to his blog posts about that topic.
I had never heard about the Pop Tech conference, and think it looks pretty cool. Check it out here.
I’d love to see comments from listeners after you read Dorian’s book. Give me feedback and maybe I can mention your review on a future blog post.
Until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #163 with Michael Hobbs Additional Info.


On this episode Michael Hobbs is my guest. Michael is a longtime WA birder who has done a survey of the birds of Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA weekly for almost 30 years! This is one of the top eBird hotspots in King County, WA, and Michael has documented the weekly occurance of birds there in great detail. This is a fabulous database of birds at a fairly typical varied Puget Sound low elvation park, and has to be unique in its detailed documentation. You can contact Michael by the email on the site if you want to join the survey some Thursday.
Michael is also an avid WA county birder, with >150 species in each of the 39 WA counties. We talk a bit about county birding on the episode. You can see all about county birding and more on the Washington Birder website. Here is an example of the great content on the site, the 2022 year-end report of county birding for the year.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Until next time, good birding!

The Bird Banter Podcast #162 with William McLean Greeley Additional Info


Learning about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and about the champion behind the act, Senator George McLean, Birdman of the Senate, has been both enjoyable and eye-awakening for me. It is always inspiring to hear about how one individual can make such a difference in the course of world events. As I mentioned in the episode Snowy Egret, along with many of our other spectacular waders, was one of the birds I saw and was in awe of on my first day of birding in the Everglades.

Will McLean is the author of a biography on his Great-great Uncle, Senator George McLean he titles

    Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: SEnator George P McLean. Birdman of the Senate.

I’m reading the book now and am leaning a lot abouot the late 19th adn early 20th centuries, as well as about the man himself.
You can buy the book on Amazon, or atthe RIT Press site at the links here. Check out Will Greeley’s web site here.

Learn more about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act on the US Fish and Wildlife Website here. Since the initial act with Canada and England in 1918, treaties were signed with Mexico in 1936, and Russia in 1976. Here is a list of the species and families of birds protected by the act.
I also learned about the “Supremacy Clasuse” in the U.S. Constitution.
Article VI, Clause 2:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Will talks about how by making the protection of birds an international treaty the issue of states rights was overcome.
Here is a link to a Field and Stream article about the first commercially successful pump shotguns which became popular in the 1890’s, and at a time with no game limits and plentiful wildlife, as well as a booming trade in feathers, having more than 2 shots with a double-barrel shotgun was wildly popular.
I hope you have enjoyed the hearing Will’s story, find his book a great read, and until next time, good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #161 with Frank Izaguirre


On this episode you’ll hear from Frank Izaguirre, an editor of the ABA’s Birding magazine, and a PhD candidate in English with his discertation covering Field Guides and how they have influenced conservation.
We also talk about the relatively new ABA social media channel ABA Community. I’ve started using it and it is pretty cool.
To hear a more detailed discussion of his discertation work, watch this You Tube.

Here is the old Golden Guide that Kay used to keep her life list of birds and as her field guide when we first started birding.

Kay’s Golden Guide that has visited the bottom of McGrath Pond in Oakland, ME and many other places.

An example of how Kay taught me to keep records. Note the Pileated Woodpecker was seen on our first day of birding together in the Everglades.

The Peterson Field Guide I bought at the Everglades Visitor Center on my first day of birding.

Just a few of the fabulous waders that I listed on that first day.

Thanks for listening.

The Bird Banter Podcast #160 with John Oshlick Additional Information

On this episode John Oshlick and I talk about his birding story, birding in Connecticut, the American Flamingos blown north by Hurricaine Idalia. John is an avid birder, and his career as a physician hospitalist allows him to occasionally make short-notice chases to find rare birds like the American Flamingos that Hurricaine Idalia blew up from the Yucatan Peninsula.

I still have not seen an American Flamingo in the U.S. despite at least twice hiking the Snake Bight Trail in the Everglades to try for a distant look.
John also talks about birding on the Long Island Sound, and on the ferry from Connecticut to Long Island to try for seabirds in the state. Long Island and the Islands at the mouth of the sound prevent most real pelagic species from entering the sound often.
In my introduction I mention hoping to attend the New River Birding Festival sometime to visit West Virginia. This would also allow me to visit Maryland.
John also mentions Great Gull Island as a tern breeding colony, so here is a link to info about that spot.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day.

The Bird Banter Podcast #159 with Ken Ostermiller and Adam Jackson Additional Information


On this episode I talk with Ken Ostermiller and Adam Jackson, the creators of a cool website that lets birders know more about an eBird hotspot they want to visit. Have you ever used the Google Maps directions on eBird to visit a hotspot, only to find that the destination has no access to the hotspot, or when you get there you just don’t really know the best way to get around the site? If not, trust me, it will happen if you visit a few hotspots. Now you can just go to BirdingHotspots.org and get information about how to bird the spot. Where to park, which trails are best, what a local birder thinks is important information for a visiting birder.
Ken started this site years ago for his home state of Ohio, and with the web design and data base help of Adam they have made the site useful for birders in the U.S., Canada and hopefully in the future other places too.
This site is an open source, not-for-profit site and is crowdsourced. You can help with the crowdsourcing feature like this:

This is a screenshot of the Union Bay Natural Area near the Universitiy of Washington. It needs local knowledge. You can go there, click on the “Suggest Edit” icon, and fill in information in the various text boxes.

I have volunteered as an editor for the site for Washington. We certainly could use additional WA editors. Contact Ken if you’re interested. It’s easy and fun.
Ken and Adam also talk about their birding stories, as is usual for the podcast, and I hope you both enjoy the episode, make use of the website, and lend your local knowledge to visiting birders to your favorite sites by adding representative photos and details about how to bird the areas.
Thanks for listening. Good birding.