My experience in birding in Costa Rica is very limited. I have visited my daughter Jean there once, about 2 years ago, and birded alone in the far southern Caribbean coastal area. I can’t wait to return and get around the country more birding. I enjoyed learning more about birding Costa Rica in talking with Jason on this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast. I am excited about maybe getting out birding when with Jason when I return, and seeing The Tierra de Sueño Lodge he and his wife run in Playa Chiquita. From the website it looks great, check it out on the link above.
The hawk watch Jason discusses can be seen here on its Facebook page, Fundacïon Raspaces de Costa Rica
The Guatemalan guide I used was Claudia Avendaño, and you can find her website Cayaya Birding here.
I don’t have a photo of the Pink-headed Warbler we talked about, but here is the Wine-throated Hummingbird

Here is a link to the Bird Banter Episode with Patrick O’Donnell we talked about.
I’ll be sure to let you all know when I get to Costa Rica again.
Good birding and good day!

On The Bird Banter Podcast #129 Jackie Lindsey and Charlie Wright from COASST, the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and I talk about the program as well as Jackie’s background a little. You can hear Charlie on episode 116 from Nov of last year. Even though it seems to me that Charlie has been a mainstay of Washington birding forever, he is still a young birder. He is the data verifier for COASST, meaning that he is the person who confirms the identity of bird carcasses found on the beaches the coast walkers report. COASST has developed a guide for volunteers to use in identifying birds they find that is quite different from the way a birder goes about identifying a bird. They first put the bird into one of three foot types, and then have an algorithm from there to get to the correct species.
Volunteers agree to walk a specific beach area monthly, and attend a day long training program to learn how to ID and report their findings. We talk a bit about some of the unusual findings that volunteers have found. They include this first Washington Least Auklet that was the first bird Charlie reviewed after returning form his Alaska summer field work where he saw lots of Least Auklets.

I have posted more extensively on the Ed’s Birding Notes for related information. Click here to see the details. Here are just a few photos.

On this episode I talk with Alex Marine, a birder from Missouri, now living in eastern Kansas, but who works in Missouri, and who did a Missouri big year in 2021. I reached out to Alex after finding him through his eBird profile, and really enjoyed talking with Alex. He has been birding most of his life, living in a number of pretty great U.S. birding locations, and was kind enough to join me on this episode.
Alex talks about lots of great birding spots on the episode and here are links to information on a few of the ones mentioned.
Alex works at Prairie State Park in Benton County. Here is a like to the park website and the eBird Hotspot.
The Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary is the top eBird hotspot in Missouri, is a place I hope to visit on my upcoming trip, and was discussed on the episode.
You can find Alex on his eBird Profile, or on Facebook and Instagram.
I also talk on the episode introducation about my upcoming Mississippi River flyway/Great River Road trip. Read more about the Great River Road here.
I’ll try to post regularly under Ed’s Birding Notes about the trip and watch for possible podcast posts.
Until next time, good birding and good day!

On this episode Dr. Daniel Klem and I talk about his long career as an ornithologist, and especially about his research, passion and recent book about the widely underappreciated deaths of birds from collisions with glass. The title of his book captures the essence and magnitude of the issue.

Birds have incredible vision. They can see a wider spectrum of colors, including some wavelengths of UV light invisible to human eyes. They can see a wider field of vision, with significantly greater visual acuity, and in dimmer light than humans. That said, they cannot see glass panes for what they are, and collisions with glass, which to them must seem like “solid air”, kill unimmaginable numbers of birds annually. Dr. Klem talks about all of this and more in his book, which I encourage you to buy.
Here are just a few amazing facts to put the magnitude and importance in perspective.
-Unlike predators, storms, and natural causes of death, glass collisions kill indiscriminately. The fittest and the weakest of birds are equally likely to die from glass collisions. Research has shown that adult, immature, healthy and sick birds all crash into glass proportionately.
-The issue is not with skyscrapers. Very few birds die in migration by crashing into the tops of skyscrapers. The issue is with residential and commercial buildings in places where birds live. The big risk is glass in areas where there are a lot of birds living, like homes, schools, businesses etc.
-Between 370 Million and 1 billion birds die of collisions with glass annually. For perspective this is on the low end >1 million birds daily! The number of birds killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill die DAILY from glass collisions!

If this sounds hopeless, take heart. There are real, relatively inexpensive things you can do to reduce the bird deaths in your yard. It is not putting falcon decals on your windows! Here are some options:
-Use decals for your windows available at Feather Friendly.
-Use Acopian Bird Saver cords. You can buy them or make your own, see video below.
-For new construction use bird safe windows, for example AviProtek windows.
-Become an activist in your community.
-Place bird feeders <1 meter from windows to prevent birds using the feeders from gaining enough speed to hit windows at lethal speeds.

There is just too much to write for just the blog post, and I encourage you to read the book to become an informed advocate.
Thanks for listening.
Good birding and good day!

On The Bird Banter Podcast #125 with Nick Bayard, executive director of BirdNote we talk a lot about the BirdNote organization, from its inception as the brainstorm and creation of Chris Peterson and the Seattle Audubon Society to its present day status as a widlely known and respected creative force for birds, birding and conservation through the Bird Note Daily podcast that is heard on 250 NPR ratio stations as well as its two longer form podcasts Threatened and Bring Birds Back.
You can find any of these podcasts on all of the commonly used podcast feeds.
You can also follow BirdNote on most social media venues including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, You Tube and more.
I really only knew about BirdNote Daily by hearing it on NPR radio, and so assumed that it was primarily funded by NPR, to learn that it is a free-standing not-for-profit organization that gets >70% of its funding from individual donors and most of the rest from grants from foundations, so instead of paying for this through our tax dollars, supportive donors support the orgainzation and NPR is the beneficiary (along with all of us who listen and enjoy).
Nick Bayard, my guest on this episode has his own interesting story. He started birding along with his family while duck hunting as a child, and went on to take some ornighology courses as an undergraduate at Brown Universily. Later he served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay and birded there. I heard about Nick from his wife when we met while I was looking for Common Redpolls in Titlow Park in Tacoma and she told me about Nick and his work on Bird Note. A really nice happenstance as it led directly to this episode, and my learning a lot more about Bird Note.
I mention a podcast called Grouse on the episode. I believe that the 8-part podcast was produced with BirdNote in conjunction with Boise State Public Radio. You can hear it on most podcast feeds, or here.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!