Today we wrapped up the birding on the edge of the Sahara Desert by looking for and finding Desert Sparrow and Fulvous Chatterer. Both took more effort than expected, but we had great looks at the Sparrow, and brief in-flight looks at the Chatterer. Tomorrow we leave for a 6 hour drive to Ifrane, with birding stops along the way. I’ll simply put up some photos from today to show the day:
Good birding. Good day!
In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #12 host Ed Pullen and Legacy Tours owner and guide talk about Michael’s career as a bird guide in Mexico, his “”patch” as well as around the world. Michael leads several trips a year to Mexico, specializing in showing birders the endemic species of Mexico, as well as trips to other parts of the world.
We spend a good part of the episode talking about the upcoming trip to Morocco that Ed as well as Bruce Labar from TBBP Episode #3 are taking with Michael as the guide. Here is a map of the route we will be taking. Morocco Route
This is going to be what Michael calls a “B” type trip. This means it will be primarily a focused birding trip, but we will have some time in various places to enjoy the local culture and sights. Sounds like fun to me.
Here is a link to Legacy Birding Web Site.
I am hoping to make recordings for TBBP while in Morocco and if I can find decent WiFi publish periodic updates on the podcast.
Good Birding. Good day.
The promised You Tube video of the Dusky Grouse we discuss in the episode.
Sharon Stitler goes by her birding moniker “Birdchick” and her Birdchick Podcast was the first podcast of any type I listened to ever! It was a real treat for me to have her as my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #11. She is knowledgible, eloquent yet casual and doesn’t take herself too seriously. A great guest and I think you’ll love hearing her story.
Check out the Birdchick website. You can even watch her bathtub episode there!
I learned the difference betweek standup comedy and improv theater. She does improv.
Here is a link to the phone-skope adapter store for the one she uses.
Please leave comments with any suggestions for future guests on the podcast, or things you’d like to hear about.
Good birding! Good day!
John Sterling started birding at age 11 in California, during what I’ve always considered the golden age of modern U.S. birding, where a generation of young birders took birding to a new level. They explored known birding spots, and discovered many new hotspots. Looking for and chasing vagrants became a key part of the birding game in those days, and many California and ABA first species sightings were discovered. John, with the support of his Dad and many of the California birders of his youth, became a key part of that renaissance.
Don Roberson’s site Who Was Who in California Birding: 1965-1989.
He tells us about his remarkable career as a field ornithologist, with stories of the American tropics, California birding, research in the northern boreal forests, and his recent trip to China.
Here are photos from John’s web site of his trip to China last month. Here are his photos from the trip I went with him to Kenya in 2016.
Here is a link to Cornell’s Neotropical Birds telling the story of the Cocha Antshrike that John was involved with the rediscovery of in the 1980’s in Equador that he talks about in the episode.
Brewers sparrow is the species I talk about in the introduction, and play the song from the Sibley App at the end of the episode. These are among the more drably marked LBJ’s (little brown jobs) we see in WA, and I don’t have any great personal photos, so here is a pic from the same site as the Cocha Antshrike above. Here is a link to the site for reference.
Please leave comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thanks.
Good birding. Good day!
In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #9 with Shep Thorpe we discussed the upcoming Moses Lake area WOS Annual Conference. A few factors to consider include:
Adams, Grant, Franklin, Kittitas and possibly Benton and Douglas Counties will be included in some of the field trips, so county listers take note, you can bulk up your WA county lists.
You can read about a typical Okanogan winter trip on the ABC site at http://abcbirding.com/jan-2019-north-central-trip/
The Billy Frank NWR where Shep leads Wednesday walks is a great birding spot. Here is a link to the eBird hotspot. If you look, you’ll see that Shep is the #1 eBird lister for this hotspot.
You can check Shep’s eBird Proile here.
More details to follow.
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #8 with Bill Tweit
In this episode host Ed Pullen talks with Bill Tweit about his birding experiences, especially with Westport Seabirds, and how it came to have the longest continuous database of pelagic seabirds in the world. Bill is a great birder, first rate scientist, and wonderful story teller. Enjoy the episode.
Annotated links to things discussed in the podcast:
On the bird banter website you can see photos from the Westport Seabirds Pelagic Trip discussed in this episode as well as read an account of the trip.
Go to the website of Westport Seabirds to schedule your Washington Pelagic Trip, to look at historical sightings or to learn about pelagic birding off the Washington coast.
Here is a place to look at the undersea topography off Gray’s Harbor, WA, i.e. Gray’s Canyon and the continental shelf areas discussed by Bill in the podcast. Map of the ocean floor off WA coast
This site discussed the current population and population trends for Short-tailed Albatross Current data on STAL population
Here is information about the AIS tracking system for boats at sea.
Here is a site talking about techniques for setting long lines to reduce albatross entrapment
Photo of adult with golden nape plumage Bill talks about on the podcast:
A link to an online version of the 1909 Status of Washington Birds by Dawson & Bowles
Here is a link to the ABC Birding Club website, the group mentioned by Bill and Ed near the end of the episode. Ed is the webmaster of the site.
Check out the blog post with photos from the pelagic trip discussed here:
Ken Brown and I went on a 6-day trip to Southern California. This trip was exactly the opposite of most of our prior trips together, when Ken did most of the planning and led the trips. I have spent some time in recent years in the area, and so planned and led this trip, with the goal of helping Ken see the area specialty birds, both native and introduced exotic species. I discuss the trip in the last episode of The Bird Banter Podcast, and here áre some photos of the trip.
In episode #7 Ben Lizdas is my guest. Ben is well known in the birding community as the optics expert formerly from Eagle Optics, and now with Redstart Birding, the optics and merchandise arm offshoot of Bird Watchers Digest.
In the episode Ben talks about his introduction to birding through immersion in the birding community, rubbing shoulders and going birding with many of the best known birders in the ABA community. He has attended most of the better known birding festivals, as well as many of the smaller festivals, and tells us about some of his favorites. He also hints at his enjoyment of winter sports, being a native of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, his enjoyment of having good food, culture and other amenities at his favorite birding destinations, and the amazing opportunities he has had to get to know the superstars of the ABA birding community.
Bill Thompson, the host of This Birding Life and Out There with the Birds, the two podcasts of Bird Watcher’s Digest, has dubbed Ben as the LeBron James of birding optics, and the moniker has stuck, because it is deserved. You have to be good to wear that jersey.
Be sure to listen to The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #7 With Ben Lizdas wherever your podcast feeds. Here is a link to the episode on the iTunes store.
Alternatively you can listen on Podbean using the player link below.
Sitting at the Orange County Airport, waiting to fly home. We had a great trip, with 179 species, including 9 lifers for Ken, and 6 new California life birds for me. 30 checklists, lots of fun, battled some poor weather, but overall a great trip and the planned topic for the next episode of The Brid Banter Podcast. Stay tuned.
Enjoy the podcast. Good day. Good birding!
Dorian Anderson on his Biking for the Birds Big Year in episode #5.
Dorian Anderson is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #5. I first met Dorian in person at the Rio Grande Birding Festival, where he was a keynote speaker, and followed his Biking for the Birds Big Year powered by Dorian (mostly by bike, some on foot) He amassed an amazing list of species while biking from Massachusetts in winter south to Florida, then across the south, up the west coast, and then into the mountain Midwest on an epic journey.
Be sure to check out his blog of the big year and his current website to stay in touch with his career.
Dorian is a fascinating guest, a deep thinker yet funny and relevant. Enjoy.