On this episode Scott and I talk about his start in birding as an adult, his quest to see all of America’s lower-48 raptors, his writing career and more.
Find Scott’s book on Amazon or at his website.
I found Scott’s morph from a beginning birder later in life to a passionate raptor enthusiast pretty interesting. Scott is not one to go into a hobby casually. He has made the leap to birder with gusto. I would not have guessed that finding some of the winter visitor raptors to be the more difficult for him, as birds like Northern Hawk-Owl and Gyrfalcon create such buzz when found that the birding community usually knows where to find one. Goshawk, one of his other tough finds nests in enough areas that I’d have thought it would have been pinned down more quickly. The little owls, like Boreal and Flammulated Owls can be really tough, and it looks like he found local experts to help with them. Anyway, it was fun to hear about his quest and his new book.
His next project is to see many of the birding spectacles in the U.S. I’d love to hear what you’d list in the top 10 birding spectacles in the U.S. Here is a list of mine without great thought (The Ones in Bold I’ve seen, the others just heard about):

1. Platte River Sandhill Cranes
2. The Morning Flight at Cape May, N.J.
3. Spring Migration at Bear Divide, CA
4. A big flight of Broad-winged Hawks at Hawk Mountain, PA
5. The Snow Geese on Fir Island, WA
6. The Hummingbirds at the feeders in S.E. Arizona in late summer.
7. The Blackbird flocks at many places in the southern U.S. (e.g. on mornings in McAllen on the wires)
8. The huge flocks of Sooty Shearwaters and California Gulls off the Washington State coast in late-summer to early-fall.
9. Spring Migration at Magee Marsh (or other locations on a fallout day)
10. Shorebird Migration in spring at any of several staging areas, like Bowerman Basin, WA, or the Delaware Bay.

Leave comments with your to birding spectacles.

Good birding and Good Day!

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.