How many 4 Year Olds learn to read by studying their Big Sibley Bird Guide?
My guest Ryan Rodriguez, 12-year old birder from McAllen, Texas, was a joy to meet and talk with. His Dad Victor sat in as the proud Dad, watching his son perform like a pro.
Check out Ryan’s eBird Profile to see his local accomplishments.
Here is a link to the World Birding Center Quinta Mazatlan Site that Ryan haunts as a birder.
The LRGV is a special place to ABA birders. So far in just the brief visit I’ve had here I’ve seen many species that would be difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere in the ABA area. Green Jay PARA_4047 Quinta Mazatlan McAllen
Aplomado Falcon A Lower RGV specialty, seen all over, heard nearly constantly calling its name. [/caption] Altamira Oriole
These are just a few of the easy ones here.
Add the vagrant Fork-tailed Flycatcher that has been hanging out since before I got here, Clay-colored Thrush, Bronzed Cowbird, and you go a long ways to building your list here.
Ryan is in an opportune place to meet and see visiting birders as well as the LRGV specialty birds.
Good Birding. Good Day!
What a great gift to have been able to spend 9 days birding the lower Rio Grande River Valley with Ken Brown and Bruce LaBar. They are great birders, fun guys, and we had a blast. I’m sad to have them leave, but needing a bit of a rest, and looking forward to exploring the valley over the next 3 weeks. I am also looking forward to having a group of Tacoma area birders join me from Feb 5-12 for an ABC Birding Club trip afar. Fork-tailed Flycatcher. The top bird of the trip using rarity in the ABA as a metric.
We talked about the World Birding Center and the 9 sites they have developed into a network of birding destinations along the lower Rio Grande. The system is spectacular, very well run, and a great addition to ABA birding. Check out their web site, and the site for each of the 9 locations.
We mentioned that local and visiting birders have been extremely gracious. On local birder, I’ll leave him unnamed as I didn’t ask his permission to mention him online, has a fabulous backyard birding setup. His home is on the edge of a local housing area, and he and his wife have developed the backyard into a birder’s heaven. They have water elements, dripping water, suet, sugar water, fruit and seed feeders, great cover. This combines to draw in spectacular numbers of birds. This is where Bruce and we got the Audubon’s Oriole. A Lower RGV specialty, seen all over, heard nearly constantly calling its name.
John Heaney met us several times along our journeys, several looking for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, which eluded him for a while before he got it after several tries. John was extremely friendly and welcoming, and introduced me to a 12-year old local birder who if all goes well will be the guest on the next episode. I’ll again leave him unnamed until I get formal permission to talk about him by name.
Here are some photos from our day at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. It may seem pretentious to use scenic in the name of a spot, but in this case it is understatement. A great tail shot of a Yellow-rumped Warbler at the Westlaco Wetlands. Note both the yellow rump and the white outer tail feather tips. Black-and-white Warbler Northern Parula
We didn’t mention that at Anzalduas County Park we got to see a Sprague’s Pipit in the grassy field. It was really cool to walk the fields and find these secretive birds poking around in the grass.
We also didn’t talk about chiggers. Chiggers are a tiny insect that if you walk in tall grass or brush can get on your clothing, and move around until they get into a tight spot, and then burrow under your skin, causing a terribly itchy rash. We have all had chiggers in the past, though mine minimal, and so avoiding chiggers was a big effort. It looks like Bruce git 3 tiny bites on his legs, and Ken was thinking he might have a bite on his buttock on the drive to the airport. If you come, avoid tall grass, and try to keep chiggers from getting onto your skin.
We also discussed the welcome wall. Here is a photo of the wall, and here is a link to a story about the National Butterfly Center fight to keep the wall out of their preserve.
Here is a link to my flickr site for photos from our time birding together.
Stay tuned to see if I can get my youngest to date top birder as my next guest. I’m looking forward to that and the rest of my time here in McAllen.
Good birding. Good day!
I’m posting the blog post early because I’ll be traveling when Episode #45 drops, so it should be available on Jan 16th.
As I mention on the episode I first met Annie when Kay and I took she and her Dad Dane on a birdathon trip when she was about 10 years old. It was so much fun talking with and doing the recording. We talk about her birding story, her travels and work in South and Central America, and hear some really cool adventure stories. Enjoy.
You can reach out to Annie Meyer @anniemeyer on Facebook on Instagram @Annie_Meyer
Click on this link for website for Third Millennium Alliance in Ecuador, preserving corridors for wildlife is
Here is a link to the Science article we talked about tht documents the dramatic decline in bird numbers in the Americas over the last 30 years.
We also discussed Land Trusts. Here is a link to the Washington Association of Land Trusts
Here is a link to a photo of and info the Hoatzin, the bird we discussed, the Hoatzin. It really is a cool bird.
Stay tuned to see if I can find one or more guests for the show during my upcoming Lower Rio Grande Valley visit.
Until next time, Good birding. Good day!
I am impressed and inspired by people I meet and know who expend their resources, the Time-Treasure-Talents triad of the things we have to offer, to support their passion and causes> My guests on this episode are a couple who have spent much of their resources working on bird habitat conservation and research. Here are some links to things we discussed on the episode. Leave comments if you want additional information.
In addition to the podcast episodes this year has had some personal birding highlights.
Near the top of the list was my trip to Morocco with Legacy Tours. Michael Carmody, my guest on Episode #12 was a fine trip leader, and a really good guy. Be sure to check out Legacy Tours for his contact info and upcoming trips. On the trip I personally listed 214 of the about 225 species seen on the trip in eBird.
Desert Warbler from Morocco trip.
Buddhist Temple in Thailand
Not far behind was my trip to Asia with my son Brett, where I got to spend a full day birding in both Thailand and Cambodia with a guide. Country lists stand at 92 for Thailand and 55 for Cambodia with a combined 90 lifers for the trip, on a trip primarily focused on non-birding tourism and visiting Brett. Red-wattled Lapwing from near Chiang Mai, Thailand
I had good listing years in both WA, with 310 species for WA and 213 for Pierce County as of today. I consider > 300 and >200 pretty good year lists, and feel great about these this year.
Besides listing, I had really good chances to get out birding with friends, especially Ken and Bruce, but also with other ABCers and with my girlfriend and novice birder Marian.
A trip to places not birded by me in the past, to the Sandpoil River area and to areas in Spokane County, WA was really fun, and I got to several other WA counties I’d birded little or not at all since using eBird in 2012. A winter trip with Ken, Ryan and Bryan to Columbia, Aostin and Garfield counties was especially rewarding. We saw fabulous numbers of Gray Partridge and Ring-necked Pheasant, a huge mixed flock of Horned Larks with Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs intermixed, a Glaucous Gull, Gyrfalcon and several owls. A moose seen near Wenachee
I visited Maine as usual in the summer, and my friend there Don Mairs is still going strong, and we spent a brief time birding near his home.
I have lots of plans for 2020. Stay tuned on the podcast, and follow on Facebook and Twitter @birdbanter to stay in touch.
A photo from Alex, of the Akiapolaa’au, a critically endangered Hawaii Island endemic
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode $41 with Alex Wang will drop on Dec 6th, but since I’m leaving tonight for Chaing Mai, Thailand to visit Art Wang, my guest on Episode #14:
I’ve met Alex on a couple of Vashon Island Christmas Bird Counts and have birded with Art a number of times. Alex is really well informed about conservation issues in Hawaii, and is a top birder too, so makes for a fascinating guest. Iiwi
He is just about to begin to lead one day trips on the Big Island of Hawaii with Birding Babe Eco Tours so you can book a day birding with Alex there.
I thought I’d use most of this post to show photos Alex let me use of many of the birds he mentions in the episode and some suggestions from Alex about where to go birding in Hawaii. This is a direct cut and paste from an e-mail from Alex.
Eastern Wild Turkey subspecies, note the chestnut brown tail feather tips, and the black and white bars on the wings. Photo from NWTF website.
I’m on Orcas Island for Thanksgiving, and although I’m vegan, others in the group are preparing a turkey for dinner. It may show a bit of looseness of association, but I checked and see that I have Wild Turkey on my San Juan Island, WA county list. That is a bit unusual in western WA as in WA most of the areas with WITU are east of the Cascades. From here is was not a big stretch for me to take a little time to research the story of the Wild Turkey populations in the U.S.
Florida subspecies, M.G. oscelata, note the dark brown tail feather tips and mostly black wings with only narrow silver wing bars. Photo credit FWC website.
There are only two species of wild turkeys in the world, our Wild Turkey, Melaeagris gallapavo, and the Ocelated Turkey of Mexico and central america M. ocelata. Rio Grande subspecies. Note tan colored tail feather tips and about equal black and white on the wings. Photo credit Agri Life Extension.
Before Columbus arrived, Wild Turkeys were common and an important source of food in the eastern part of the U.S. There are 6 subspecies of Wild Turkey, the eastern population M.g. silvestris covered the eastern half of the U.S. and parts of southern CanadaFlorida, and the Florida subspecies is M.g Osceola. In the western parts of the U.S. the subspecies M.g. meriami (Meriam’s subspecies) covered much of the intermountain areas, the Rio Grande subspecies, M.g. intermedia was mostly in the central plains states and parts of Mexico, and Gould’s Wild Turkey was in S.E. Arizona and S.W. New Mexico. A sixth subspecies, the Mexican Wild Turkey is felt to be extinct, but it is felt to be the predecessor of all the domestic wild turkeys being bred throughout the world today. This has become such a huge industry that in 2016 produced an estimated 7.5 billion pounds of meat. Merriam’s subspecies of Wild Turkey. Note the white or very light tail feather tips, and white rump area, and more white than dark on the wings. Photo credit Nebraskaland Magazine.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the new world, there are estimated to have been about 10 million wild turkeys in the area that is now the lower 48 U.S. This population was decimated by multiple factors. Hunting for market was a big issue. By 1850 most of the virgin wild forests in the eastern U.S. had been cleared for farmland, so habitat loss was a big factor. After the Civil War the combination of logging, railroads to move harvested trees, and unregulated hunting continued. By 1920 only 21 of the 39 states (using current boundaries) still had wild turkeys. By 1925-1930 the total U.S. Wild Turkey population has estimated ranging from 30,000 (probably too low) to 200,000 (more likely).
By the 1930’s efforts to reintroduce wild turkeys to various areas were being tried. Lack of habitat, by the 1930’s did not seem to be a limiting factor. By then family farms were already being abandoned, and regrowth of trees in those areas provided excellent Wild Turkey habitat. The big issue was how difficult it was to live capture Wild Turkeys. Pole traps, pen traps, funnel traps and drop nets just didn’t catch them. Because of this efforts were made to capture and breed turkeys, and then release them to establish new breeding colonies. There is no evidence of this ever working. It turns out that wild mother Wild Turkeys have to teach their young techniques to survive, and captive bred turkeys just couldn’t survive without wild mothers to raise them. The few efforts at first felt to be working, turned out to be inmovement from existing populations into areas where birds had been released.
In the 1950’s techniques to capture Wild Turkeys were explored, and finally in 1951 in North Carolina Herman (Duff) Holbrook found he could use a cannon fired net that had been previously used to catch waterfowl could successfully catch Wild Turkeys. Over the next 6 years he managed to capture 241 Eastern Wild Turkeys, and released these birds in 8 locations in S. Carolina. At least half of these releases led to growing wild populations.
About the same time a W. Virginia hunter and biologist Wayne Bailey experimented with the cannon nets, and became so good at this that he captured wild birds and established over 20 locations across W. Virginia. By 1959 at least 31 states were working to establish WITU populations. This made WITU maybe the most extensively and comprehensively applied conservation activity anywhere in the world in the mid 20th century. As in conservation of duck and goose habitat, hunters were the primary source of funding and energy behind these efforts.
Estimates of WITU populations in the U.S show that the growth in the WITU populations has indeed been incredible. The estimated 320,000 in 2951 increased to 1.4 million by 1974, to 1.8 million in 1979, to 2.4 million in 1984, 4.1 million in 1994, and seems to have leveled off at somewhere over 6 million today.
The political power and business acumen of hunters and WITU conservationists was on display throughout the latter parts of this WITU introduction efforts. The Lacey Act of 1907 prohibited the interstate sale and transportation of wildlife. This meant that either the stated capturing to WITU to send across state lines had to donate the birds and accept the cost without reimbursement, or otherwise figure out the costs. Things like barter, where one state provided one type of wildlife in exchange for the WITU happened. Things like Large-mouth Bass, River Otter, and Ruffed Grouse were used. The political clout of hunters came to the forefront. A group called the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) created a “”Super Fund” system that allowed each states NWTF chapter to hold part of the funds they raises to be used exclusively for Wild Turkey and hunting heritage projects. This freed states to introduce viable WITU populations, and from there the turkeys flourished so that now there are established WITU populations in every lower 48 state and in Hawaii. Gould’s subspecies of Wild Turkey. Note the long legs, and snow white tail feather tips and rump feathers. Photo credit Arizona Hunting.
Somewhat amazingly, despite the usual issues with introduced non-native populations having unintended consequences, except for being a nuisance to humans in some areas where they intrude onto peoples yards and annoy them, the introduced WITU have not been demonstrated to be a major detriment to native populations.
So the good news is that I now have WITU in many of the WA counties, several U.S. states.
Here are photos of several of the subspecies of WITU in the U.S. The re-introduction programs have mixed up the subspecies to a degree that in many areas pure subspecies are hard to find or differentiate, and interbreeding of introduced WITU of various subspecies had blurred the subspecies ID beyond practical application in the field.
Here are links to two of the primary sources of the info in this post.
White-tailed Tropicbirds were easily seen in various places.
Although this trip has been based out of the Pono Kai resort about midway up the east coast of Kauai, and has not been primarily a birding trip, I’ve had pretty good chances to get out birding, though have not been able to access any of the higher elevation native habitats needed to see most of the endemic species. Rain- heavy at times- and driving sedan with not-new tires has prevented even trying the dirt roads needed for access to Koke’e State Park and the Alaki i Swamp areas I’d have liked to get to bird in. At the Fern Grotto on a boat ride up the only river large enough to navigate in Kauai, the most common bird was feral Rock Pigeon.
Still I brought a spotting scope, and have birded most of the lower elevation spots I knew about.
My #1 take away is that it is hard to find many species of birds on Kauai. Pacific Golden Plovers are all over Kauai at this time of year.
Hawaii life list prior to this trip, when I’d really only casually birded near Honolulu, and on Maui and Kauai, was only 20 species on eBird. I’d visited Maui in 1992 and Kauai in 2003. I know I had a few more, but didn’t keep good records so that was my starting point. Now with 1 more day and low expectations for any new birds, my HI list stands at 41. Common Myna
At first glance that seems pitiful. I must admit I have not really worked the urban areas to try for every possible introduced species. Misses have included Red Avadavat, Saffron Finch, Japanese Bush-warbler, and African Silverbill. Hawaiian Black-necked Stilt
My birding started at the airport in Maui, where I had a 55 minute layover before changing planes to Kauai. I saw House Sparrow and Common Myna there.
I had learned from the Hawaii Audubon Society website 2 most common birds, Common Myna and Zebra Dove. I believe that. This was one of the few lists that did not have both of those species.
On arrival at our condo, it was dark, so Sunday AM we took a brief walk on the Kapa’a State Beach State Park walkway. Very nice paved walk, on abandoned sugar plantation train route, 4 miles long on Kapa’a shore. #1 eBirder for this hotspot is George Gertz from WA. I managed 10 species, including new HI birds for me White-rumped Sharma. As expected, but still really cool, were Pacific Golden Plovers everywhere. Seen in WA in migration, usually fall juveniles. Fly across the Pacific from Alaska. Here seen all over. Rooftops, parking lots, any grassy area. Wonder what Parr is for a golf course in PGPL / hole. My guess is higher than parr for golf shots. Red-crested Cardinal is one of the more common exotic songbirds here.
Also Sunday we visited ‘Opaeka’s Falls, a nice view but 4 species of birds previously seen. Farther south along Hwy 50 we pulled out at a scenic lookout, and got nice but distant looks at two new HI birds for me, White-tailed Tropicbird and Rose-ringed Parakeet. Also spectacular vistas of a distant waterfall, the seemingly ubiquitous rainbow we have seen this week, (speaks to the weather) and fought off the domestic Jungle Fowl.
Nene, or Hawaiian Goose is fairly common after a successful recovery program.
Monday I headed out myself, leaving Marian to explore Kapa’a Town, and fought rain most of the morning. I planned to head south, visiting some urban, forested and wetland areas. As is often the case when visiting new areas access to viewing was difficult, but I had a nice morning. First was Hule’ia NWR. Heavy rain made it tough, but I managed to see a few Warbling White-eyes, (used to be Japanese White-eye prior to a lump of Japanese and Mountain White-eyes in 2018). I tried and failed to find viewable access to the reservoirs around Koloa, but stumbled upon a birdy area of farmland, finding my only Chinese Hwamei of the trip so far, and great looks at adult male White-rumped Sharma with their long streaming tail feathers. Zebra Dove is one of the most common birds on Kauai, and throughout the islands.
By far my favorite stop of the day was at the Salt Ponds State Park, just past the south tip of the island. A place with open wetlands where sea salt is harvested, making muddy habitat where I found several WATA, RUTU and lots of BNST Hawaiian race, and of course PGPL. I also saw a Brown Booby working off shore, and two species of dabbling ducks, N. Shoveler and N. Pintail. By the time I finished there about noon it was getting really hot, and I headed for the pool and lunch. Cattle Egrets are ubiquitous here.
Tuesday we had planned to take a helicopter ride, but it rained so hard the trip was cancelled. We only planned to do this because Marian won a 2-for-1 drawing at the condo when the concierge told of things to do nearby. My experience on this trip maybe 20 years ago was of trying not to barf from the diesel fumes and motion sickness the whole trip, so I called this good Karma and gladly bailed. We headed for the dry side of the island, and enjoyed stops at the Kawaiele Wildlif¬e Sanctuary¬ where we spotted the first Hawaiian Coot, Hawaiian race of Common Galanule, and N. Mockingbird of the trip. It was great to show Marian Nene, and BCNH too. The rest of the day was beach stops, swimming and nothing special for birds. The old lighthouse at Kilauea Point. It was powered by a kerosene lamp, and with the 8000 pound Fresnel Lens that floated on 260 ;bs of mercury could be seen 90 miles at sea. It is now inoperational.
Wednesday we took a bus trip around the island, with little birding, but saw more White-tailed Tropicbirds here and there, and at the Kilauea Light House saw hundreds of Red-footed Boobies and lots of White-tailed Tropicbirds, Great Frigatebirds, and a few Brown Boobies, along with the expected Laysan’s Albatrosses roosting under some pine trees. 20 years ago when I was there, we saw them nesting on grass right by the lighthouse, but this time they were fairly distant looks. Surprisingly we didn’t find Red-tailed Tropicbird, which I had expected to see. The new LED light can be seen only 7 miles at sea, but does not need the toxic mercury, is efficient and inexpensive to operate.
Today we headed back north, with plans for spending some time at the Kilewea Lighthouse Park on a seawatch, and see the RTTR along with hopefully a Wedge-tailed Shearwater. I spent nearly 2 hours on a seawatch. I did manage lots of great looks at the same species we say yesterday, but no WTSH anywhere. I talked to a ranger. She warned me it was late, but any chance for WTSH would be remaining chicks in their burrows. She advised looking for scree on the paved path, and look near there. We spent a few minutes doing this, and sure enough, right behind the pay-station at the foot of the path was fresh scree, and literally a foot off the trail, in a burrow was what appeared to be a soon-to-fledge WTSH chick peeking out of its hole. Really cute and obliging. My first non-introduced lifer for the trip. Yahoo!
The last birding hotspot of the day was at the Hanalea NWR, a large wetlands where I found Hawaiian Ducks and my first Scaly-breasted Munia of the trip. Earlier this AM on an exercise walk near the condo I had seen several Chestnut Munia, so managed both of those species today. Hawaiian Duck, not the brown tail, distinguishing it from a Mallard.
My takeaways for the trip so far is that a birder should not come to Hawaii expecting to easily tick a large number of species. To get many native species plan to get to high elevation areas, spend some time there, and have an all-wheel drive high clearance vehicle to get in and out.
Still, maybe the definition of a first-world problem is struggling to find a large list of birds when getting to the “garden island” of Kauai for a week away from the short days and likely cold rain of the Puget Sound area in November. View from an overlook above Hanalea.
It’s been a very enjoyable trip, and I’m having lots of fun, and seeing a few birds too.
Until next time, good birding, and good day!
In this episode Isaiah and I talk about his 2019 Washington State Big year and his birding story. Isaiah is a top young Washington State birder, and I hope you find his story interesting. I also talk a bit about my upcoming vacation to Kauai and the issues with exotic species in Hawaii.
You can contact Isaiah via the e-mail address available on his eBird profile page which also has up to date information on his WA big year progress and links to photos, etc.
Here is a link to Episode #26 with Tim Larson and the issues about house mouse eradication on the Farallon Islands off the California Coast.
You can also reach out to Isaiah on Facebook or Instagram.
Stay tuned for more about my upcoming Hawaii birding experiences.
Here is a link to the Hawaii Invasive Species Council.
I hope to bird at the Kilauea Point NWR. Here is the eBird hotspot link for this place. Here is a link to a cool video from the hotspot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGlma3ZKHE
Here is to a great week in Hawaii, and to talking to you about it soon.
Until next time, good birding. Good day!
When I stumbled across the Birdsong Podcast I just loved it. I felt like I was spending a little time birding in with a friend in a area with a representative eastern U.S. avifauna. I heard the narrator quietly walking through the woods, marshes and fields while giving a quiet play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird narrative of what we were hearing. It is simple, novel and well done. Just flat-out cool stuff for a birder to hear IMHO. In brushy habitat a good guess in our area to the identity of any loud repeated birdsong or call of a bird you cannot locate is likely to be this Bewick’s Wren.
You can find his introductory episode at this link on iTunes
Here is a link to the Birding by Ear series I talk about in the intro to this episode. This is the Eastern U.S. course, there is also a series for the Western U.S. birds. The Ka-brick call of this Ash-throated Flycatcher to me sounds like a referee’s whistle.
If you have other podcasts you love, please leave info in the comments section.
Thanks for listening. Until next time. Good birding. Good day!
A Lower RGV specialty, seen all over, heard nearly constantly calling its name. [/caption]
When I stumbled across the Birdsong Podcast I just loved it. I felt like I was spending a little time birding in with a friend in a area with a representative eastern U.S. avifauna. I heard the narrator quietly walking through the woods, marshes and fields while giving a quiet play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird narrative of what we were hearing. It is simple, novel and well done. Just flat-out cool stuff for a birder to hear IMHO.
