Category: Podcast summary

The Bird Banter Podcast #79 with Lynn Barber Additional Information

On this episode you’ll hear about Lynn Barber’s big years and more. Lynn is an insatiable big year birder, who has done big years in Texas, Alaska, South Dakota, the ABA and has books about the ABA Big Year and the Texas and Alaska Big Years that you can get directly from her by emailing her at dalybar@aol.com to get a signed copy, or on many of the online book sales stores. Lynn put up a supply for book tours just before Covid hit, so be kind and buy yours directly from her if you can.

Lynn has also served as the president of the Texas Ornighologic Society, is active now in the Anchorage Audubon, and offers to show visitors around Anchorage if you visit. I hope to take her up on that sometime.
Here is Lynn’s website.


Lynn’s first book about her ABA Big Year

Lynn’s book about 40 species of birds in danger.

Good birding and good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #78 with Nick Lund Supplemental Information


I had a blast talking with fellow Mainer Nick Lund on The Bird Banter Podcast #78. Nick, “The Birdist”, has carved out a niche in the ABA birding community as one of the top writers, speakers and birders especially in tune with birding in the broader context of life in America. He writes the blog, “The Birdist”, and is a regular guest on the ABA Podcast with Nate Swick, especially on the “this month in birding” segment.
Nick works for Maine Audubon, an independent Maine conservation organization, and his birding story is fun and inspirational. I especially enjoyed hearing how he got started in birding after stumbling across a used Peterson Field Guide with hand-written field notes in the side columns. This reminded me how my late wife Kay taught me to keep my notes as she had been taught by writing the date and county of every first sighting.

Kay’s original Golden Guide field guide book, copyright 1966. It is her life list, and essentially a travel diary. It has been to the bottom of McGrath Pond in Oakland, Maine.

Here are Kay’s field notes/life list notation of her “spark bird” a Cedar Waxwing seen on the Middle Fork of the Weiser River in Adams County, ID 9/4/1976 where she first started birding while living with three young CA birders and working on a Boise Cascade brush crew,
This is the Peterson Field Guide that I bought at the Ranger Station in the Everglades on my first day of birding there. It is the first Peterson Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies that has the plates in color and next to the descriptions rather than in black and white and in a separate section.
Here is the page showing some of the waders I saw on my first day of birding in the Everglades with Kay. 4-17-1986.

Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Maine Audubon
The ABA Podcast episode on birding Newfoundland

Good Birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #74 with Tom Bancroft Additional Information


I first met Tom Bancroft at the first Washington Ornithology Society (WOS) meeting after I was elected as a trustee last year. Tom is the secretary of WOS, and impressed me with his quiet, thoughtful, knowledgeable and impactful input on most of the issues we discussed. I knew from reading the WOS newsletter that he is a good writer, and came to realize that is he also a very good birder and has had an interesting and broad set of experiences I was excited to explore on the podcast. I was not disappointed, and hope you enjoy the episode.

You can find Tom’s birding class with the Mountaineers here once it is listed.

Here is a link to the Seattle Audubon Society website classes page.
This is Tom’s web site. You can find his class by the Eastside Audubon Society here.
This is the WOS website. Here is a link to the online version of the Birder’s Guide to Washington

The everglades were where Tom worked for many years. Here is a link to an old blog post I wrote about a visit there.

Here is an article in the Florida Audubon Society website on the Everglades “River of Grass” land acquisition program.
The Merlin app from Cornell is a phone and online free app to help identify birds. Here is a link to the Cornell web site with a how-to-use-Merlin lesson and links to the app stores to download the app.

Tom talks about the Important Bird Area initiative. Here is an article on the Cornell site talking about this program.

Please leave a comment with any suggestions you have for future guests, other feedback, or contact me at the contact page on this site.
Until next time. Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #77 with John Patten Moss Additional Information

On The Bird Banter Podcast #77 with John Patten Moss we talk about his experience travelling from Olympia, WA south into central California using only his unicycle for transportation while trying to find as many species of birds as possible, i.e. a unicycle big year! Covid cut the trip short, but still it was a journey worthy of note.

Here are some links to topics we discussed:
2020 The Vision Blog ius John’s blog with posts from while he was on the road birding.

Here is Dorian Anderson’s blog post about his time birding with John in California.

I talk about other big year adventures. Here are links to some of these discussed.

Noah Stryker’s World Big Year in 2015
A summary of the Biggest of ABA Big Years

I somehow failed to mention Chirstian Hagenlacher as a Bird Banter guest big year birder. He was in the mix in the biggest ABA big year or all, and was a guest on two separate episodes. Here is his website link. The Birding Project Christian didn’t just do a big year for birds, he met and interviewed birders and others all along the way, and wrote the book Falcon Freeway to tell his story.

I’m hoping to get lots of comments on your favorite “big year”, “Big Day” or big whatever stories. Please leave a comment and share your stories with readers.

Thanks.

Good birding. Good day.

The Bird Banter Podcast #75 with Matt Yawney


I have met Matt Yawney in the field a few times. Each time left me with new respect for Matt as a birder and as a really nice guy. One of the first times I met Matt was on a visit to Bassett Park in Washtucna, WA. This is a quite small town in eastern WA, and Matt had found an uncommon eastern wood warbler there the day prior. I don’t recall which warbler, but I do remember Matt spending some time looking around the park with me, and seeing and hearing lots of other migrants in the trees.
Later in 2018 Matt was doing a Grant County big year, and we communicated when Ken Brown and I were birding fall migration in the area. Ken and I located a Short-billed Dowicher at Potholes Park and a Pacific Golden Plover at Perch Point, and helped get Matt onto these two species he needed for his year list.
At the last WOS Conference in Moses Lake Matt led a field trip to Northrop Canyon that included many other stops. He was a really fine trip leader, and again we were all impressed and pleased at his low-key but high energy birding leadership on his home turf.
Grant County is a fairly rural county, with less than 90,000 people in the 2010 census, but has a nice list of birds. There are 339 species on the Grant County Checklist on WABirds.com and Matt has seen 286 species on his eBird list. I don’t know of anyone with a list that approaches Matt in the county. The closest on eBird is Gina Sheridan with 245, and on the WA Birder site Randy Hill has 264 posted. `
I especially enjoyed Matt talking about really working the expected migrant spots in the key times of the year. This sounded a lot like when I talked with Kimball Garrett on episode 71 and he talked about knowing the geography, the vagrancy patterns, and the expected local birds as keys to finding uncommon vagrants.
Here are some links that relate to topics discussed on the episode:
Matt’s eBird Profile page
The WABirder Page.
The episode of The Bird Banter Podcast with Ryan Rodriguez
The Bird Banter Podcast with Kimball Garrett
Here is a cool article with more info on Arctic Tern migration.
Until next time. Good birding. Good day!

More Information about The Bird Banter Podcast #73 with Jason Fidorra


I had so much fun talking with Jason Fidorra on this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast. Jason has a cool birding story, and lives and works in a unique area of Washington. It was great to hear him talk about the shrub-steppe habitat and its challenges and cool aspects, and about his journey from beginning birder to passionate and skilled birder. He talks about a July county birding challenge in his local counties too, a great idea any of us could emulate.
You can find Jason on Facebook.
He moderates Tri-cities Birders on Facebook too.
I mention Andy Stepnewski on the podcast, so here is a link to a writeup about Andy’s talk to ABC Birding.
I hope you enjoyed the episode. Until next time. Good birding and Good Day!

Additional Info on The Bird Banter Podcast #72 with Kimball Garrett


I had so much fun talking with Kimball Garrett on this episode. Kimball is a rich source of history, birding information, and great perspective for me. I hope you enjoy the episode. We talk about L.A. County birding. For perspective here is a link to Kimball’s eBird profile where you can check out his recent birding. (see the comment below by Kimball re eBird vs. the actual accepted LA County lists. eBird encourages birders to submit findings of escapees and other non-listable birds seen in the field. This is good for their database, but is annoying to some of us who use eBird as our record keeping tool for our lists.) Here is where you can find him on the L.A. Natural History Museum webpage.
Kimball was a primary author on the book he mentions just briefly on Birds of Southern California at the ABA affiliated Buteo Books.
I mention a fabulous pelagic trip I took out of San Diego. Here is a link to the source for that trip.
Several of my previous guests are friends of Kimball or are mentioned on the episode. Here are some links to those episodes.

John Sterling from Episode #10 recommmended Kimball as a guest and was a member of the group of young California birders we discuss briefly.

I talk about the passion David Irons has for bird status and distrubution. He was a great guest on Episode #58.

Bruce LaBar, another of the young California generation of birders was my guest on Episode #3.

Thanks for reading and listening. Good Birding. Good Day!

Supplemental Notes on The Bird Banter Podcast #71 Ed on Birding Resources

On The Bird Banter Podcast #71 I talk in detail about resources birders, both experienced and beginners, can use to get more enjoyment out of their birding, to learn to better find and identify birds they see, and about my own progression from beginner to a more experienced and proficient birder today. Here are links to help find some of the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy.

Episodes with great individual birding stories:
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #2 with Ken Brown
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #3 with Bruce LaBar
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #68 with Dennis Paulson
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #45 with Annie Meyer

The North American Field Guide Recommendations

Sibley Guide to the Birds second edition
The National Geographic Guide to the Birds of North America 7th edition (note I inadvertently stated that there is an 8th edition on the podcast, my mistake there.
The Birds of North America by Kenn Kauffman
Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding.
The ABA’s Guide to the Birds of Oregon by David Irons

Supplemental Bird ID guides mentioned in the podcast episode:
Pete Dunne’s Field Guide Companion Kindle Edition here. Tough to find in hardcover edition.
Hawks in Flight by Dunne, Sibley and Sutton
Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest by Dennis Paulson out of print, this link to an expensive used book on Amazon.
Oceanic Birds of the World by Howell and Zufelt
Molt in North American Birds by Howell is out of print and quite expensive used.

The Phone Bird ID apps mentioned are:
Sibley V2
iBird PRO after further research I don’t recommend buying this app as it sounds like future support could be in question.

The eBird app is described here.
The Merlin App for bird ID is described here.
This is a link to the ABA page to find any state or regional listserv for bird sightings.
I talk about Jerry Cooper’s book: Birdfinder: A Birder’s Guide to Planning North American Trips. Used copies are available inexpensively.

Please leave comments with other suggestions or advice to birders about resources you like. Thanks.

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast #70 with Peter Hodum Photos and More Information


What fun for me to sit with Peter Hodum on the UPS campus and talk about his passion and work on seabird conservation both in Washington State and in the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile. Peter did his PhD work on seabirds near Antarctica, but his more recent work has been on seabird research in both Washington State and in the Juan Fernández Islands. These islands are located about 670 kilometers off the coast of Chile, and due to their remote location have a very large percentage of endemic organisms.

Map of the Chilean Islands

Per Wikipedia 62% of the 209 species of vascular plants on the islands are endemics there. (means that they are only found there) There are no native land mammals, reptiles or amphibians on the islands, and only 17 species of land and sea birds breed on the islands, with several endemic bird species.
If you are interested in the organization supporting this research check out the Oikonos website.
Peter’s research is primarily on the seabirds of the islands, but there are super-cool passerines there too, and he shared some photos with us for this post.
The islands are named after the explorer Juan Fernández who discovered them in the 1570’s and are famous as the place where th sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned for several years in 1704. His story is believed by many to be the inspiration for the Robinson Crusoe book. Of note two of the three major islands in the archipelago are named Robinson Crusoe Island and Selkirk Island.
Enjoy.

We talk about how Tufted Puffins are able to catch, hold in their bill, and carry back to their nest to feed their yound large numbers of fish. Here is evidence!

The impressive bill up close.

Pink-footed Shearwaters breed on the Juan Fernandez Islands and are seen in fall off the WA coast.

Pink-footed Shearwater in flight.

The Juan Fernandez Firecrown is one of the sought after endemnic passerines breeding on the islands

Anothe view of the Juan Fernandez Firecrown

Another passerine there is the Masafuera Rayadito

Masafuera Myadita

Good Birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #69 with Francisco Garcia Additional Info.


I heard about Francisco Garcia a number of times over the years when talking with Marcus Roening and Heather Ballash about their many trips to Mexico. Francisco is based in San Blas, in Nayarit, Mexico, and leads birding tours through Safaris San Blas.  You can find them on Facebook @safarisanblas

It was really fun to hear about the excellent birding in the San Blas area that is accessible on relatively short drives from town, allowing a good bird list without spending long days traveling.  I checked on eBird, and Francisco is the #2 eBird lister in Nayarit, Mexico, with a great life list there. His list is 473 species, and of interest to me is that Marcus and Heather are #14 & #15 with 342 and 340 species respectively.   They have 640 and 619 in all of Mexico on their eBird Lists.  I knew that they had birded Mexico a lot, but Wow!

Nayarit is one of the smaller Mexican states in population, with about 1.2 millinon people, and has a good portion of the Pacific Coastline of Mexico.  The eBird list for Nayarit is 561 species of a total of 1099 in all of Mexico.

If you want to listen to the episode with Marcus and Heather, it is #64, and here is a link to their episode on Apple Podcasts. You can also listen on Podbean here on the BirdBanter.com site front page.

Thanks for listening.  Until next time.  Good birding. Good day!