Tag: birding

The Bird Banter Podcast #93 with Debbie Beer Additional Info.


Sometimes while recording a podcast episode I wish I had more time to visit with and get to know a guest. This episode with Debbie Beer was one of those times. She has a goal to bird in each of the 50 states with her sister, and to see 50 species in each state. This is a standing invite to Debbie and her sister to visit WA and I’ll show them the state and far more than their goal of 50 species.
I also mention Blair Bernson as a resource for this goal, and his website. Blair was a guest previously and we talk about his quest to see 50 species in a day in each of the 50 states while birding with a local birder.
Debbie Beer is a birder, traveler, and works at Nature Lands, a land trust in the Delaware Valley area. We talk about her birding and travels. Sometimes on an episode it is fun when I learn that I share experiences with a guest. Both Debbie and I have birded in Kenya and Morocco, as well as the greater NYC area. Enjoy.
Debbie is active in the Delaware Valley Ornithologic Club, and won the Bob Billings Big Year award in 2020.

On the episode we talk about birding in Africa. I visited Kenya with my late wife Kay, Bruce Labar and leaders John Sterling and James Bradley. On the episode I say we birded from the east to the coast. Actually we started in Nairobi at Nairobi National Park, worked our way west all the way to Lake Narusha and the Kakamega Forest then looped back east seeing Tsavo West and Tsavo East and ending our trip at the coast near Watamu. My eBird list has Kenya as the country with the second most species of any country after the U.S. at 548 species. A spectacular trip.

Interestingly Debbie also toured Morocco, and that is the only other African place I’ve birded. Pervious guests Bruce LaBar, Heather Ballash and Marcus Roening were also on this trip with me. The really cold place I mention on the episode was in the Atlas Mountains at a ski area.
Here is a link to a podcast episode with Michael Carmody, the trip leader for the Morocco trip.
The John Heinz NWR sounds great. Here is a link to their web site and the eBird hotspot

My Pierce County lifer White-breasted Nuthatch

After recording this episode I did manage to get out to see my county first White-Breasted Nuthatch with Bruce LaBar at the backyard feeders of a really friendly homeowner.
I hope this finds all of you happy, healthy and finding birding good as winter progresses and spring is around the corner.
Until next time. Good birding. 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 #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!

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 Episode #68 with Dennis Paulson Additional Info.


I have knows about Dennis Paulson since first moving to  the Puget Sound area in 1987, and after getting his Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest book have enjoyed reading that and reviewing it every spring and fall as migration approaches.  Dennis is an iconic figure in the Washington birding community.  He has taught the Seattle Audubon Master Birding Class for many years, curated the Slater Museum at the University of Puget Sound and taught there, has talked at just about every local and regional birding related event for decades, and is such a nice guy that he is truly beloved by WA birders.

We talk about lots of topics on the podcast. Here are links to some of them.

Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest is out of print, and expensive on Amazon. If you want a copy, search and maybe you can find one.

Shorebirds of North America a Photographic Guide is still available.

Hawks in Flight by Pete Dunne and others is here on Buteo Books.

Pete Dunnes Field Guide Companion is the third book I mentioned that is one of my favorites.   It is best found as a Kindle Book on Amazon now, as the hard cover ones are expensive.  It is not a book with photographs or color plates, so a digital version should be great. ‘

Here is a link to the online Slater Museum Collection  of wings and tails.  You’ll need to search by scientific name, so be prepared.

Both of the dragonfly books we discussed,  the Dragonflies of the East and Dragonflies of the West are still available on Amazon.

We talk about the Washington Ornithological Society convention. Here is a link to the WOS web site.

The Audubon Guide to the Birds of Oregon we talked about is by David Irons, my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #58. with a link here.

You can find the Seattle Audubon Society website page on the here to check on the next Master Birding Class with Dennis.

Thanks for visiting. Please subscribe to the Bird Banter Podcast wherever you get your podcast feeds.

Good Birding. Good day!

 

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63 with Mike Denny: More Info


Mike Denny

Mike Denny is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63, and what fun we had doing the recording. I called Mike a week or so ahead of a hoped for trip to the Walla Walla area in hopes of seeing my first Washington State Great Gray Owl. I had seen this species in Oregon, on a trip coordinated by Ken Brown for our ABC Birding Club, when a local biologist took us to a known nest box. That was very exciting, as an lifer and we got to see both adults and young birds. Mike offered to take Ken and me to a known nesting area in WA, and though the birds had fledged a week or so earlier, he expected that we would be able to find them in the area.
Gray Catbird

After a nice early morning of birding the lower elevations of Walla Walla County, and adding Veery to our WA year list, we headed up Jasper Mountain. Along the way Mike held told stories
Adult Ferruginous Hawk in a tree right beside the road. Photo taken through open drivers window from passenger seat.
of the Jasper Mountain Land Trust and how important they, and land trusts in general are to habitat preservation, as well as lots of cool info on the birds, butterflies, salamanders, snakes etc of the area.
After getting to the area of the nesting spot, Mike showed us the unusual nest site, a large escavated Pileated Woodpecker working, and we started to look for branching owlets. Mike pointed out scree by the road. He showed us how adult scree is all urea, like most birds, but that the scree of young owls can contain undigested hair and other material. We also saw wolf dung, like large dog poop but containing lots of hair from the deer or elk that they take as prey.
Wolf Dung. Note the hair from prey .

Shortly Ken spotted two owlets on a branch of a tree maybe 75 meters away. We looked at them, and then moved to a place with a clearer view. Mike suggested that we sit and watch, and wait for the parents to come feed them. I thought this was a perfect time to talk, and record the podcast, so Mike, Ken and I sat on a roadside bank, watched the owlets, and recorded this episode. I used an omnidirectional speaker, so listen carefully and hear both the owlets begging, the adult GGOW answering, and lots of other birds in the area.
Two of the 3 Great Gray Owl branching young birds that we watched for an hour or so.

Here is a link to The Secret Life of the Forest: The Northern Blue Mountains.
Here is the web site of the Blue Mountain Land Trust, the group that has helped preserve the land around a top birding area we visited, Coppei Creek https://bmlt.org/
Here is the snake that Mike spotted in the road on the way down from Bethyl Ridge Road.

A species of snake, a “Racer” of some variety, that Mike managed to get to move from the middle of the road to directly underneath his vehicle.

And here is Mike looking for the snake in his engine compartment, after he tried to shoo it away to safety, and instead it hid under his car, then disappeared.
Mike searching for the snake in his engine compartment.

Overall a great day of birding, ending with this fabulous sunset.
Sunset over Rattlesnake Mountain.

Until next time, good birding and good day!

Notes Supplemental to The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #53 with Ryan Merrill


Ryan Merrill and I talk about his birding story,  birding in Washington State, and about his local patch birding.  He also talks about his work on the Washington Bird Records Committee, and life as the husband/father in a family with a young child as a birder.  Enjoy. 

You can reach Ryan by e-mail: rjm284-at-gmail-dot-com

Here is a link to the Washington Bird Records Committee site:  

This is info about the Seattle Audubon Society Young Birders activities:  

The Swallow-tailed Gull Ryan found in WA made the local media in many places. Here is an example:  

Ryan talks about Carkeek Park near his home in Seattle. Here is info about that local park:  https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/carkeek-park

I hope you all stay well, get birding often, and until next time. Good birding. Good day!

Episode Notes #40 with Isaiah Nugent


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!

Dr. Ursula Valdez and The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #35


On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #35 I talk with Dr. Ursula Valdez about her birding story and about her decade plus of work in the Peruvian Amazon. We cover a lot of issues, and in this post I hope to add details and clarification to some of the topics we discussed. Her doctoral work was studying forest falcons in the Southeastern Peru Amazon. Here is a list of some of her publications related to that work listed on the Peregrine Fund page on a global raptors site. Here is the article on my birding club’s site after she made her presentation to us at a club meeting.

The Five species of forest falcons Dr. Valdez studied in the Peruvian Amazon (from her talk at ABC Birding)

This is a photo of her slide at that presentation of the five species of forest falcons she studied in her doctoral work.
More recently Dr. Valdez has been working with a local landowner, other researchers, local youth, and visiting volunteers at él Centro de Educacíon, Ciencia y Conservacíon, in the Madre de Díos, a great name translated the Mother of Gods, in the Tambopata Province of Peru, near the town of Puerto Maldonado. This is one of the most species diverse areas of the world, and in an area being ravished by land clearing, slash burning and gold mining. We talk about the gold mining, much of which is done illegally, in areas where it is not legally allowed. The gold there is disbursed in the runoff sediment from the river, and huge areas of the river itself and surrounding forest are cleared, dug up, the gold extracted in a process using mercury, and left ravished. The ecological and health consequences are devastating to the community and of course to the wildlife of the area. Here is an article about this issue on the USAID website. The article addresses the social, ecological and community issues related to the illegal alluvial gold mining in the Madre de Díos region.
Dr. Valdez also talks about her local work at the Bothel Campus of the University of Washington, where she teaches, does local conservation work, and continues her research activities.
The facebook page @CECCOT is a great way to keep touch with their great organization and to hear about volunteer opportunities there. Be sure to like and follow their page, and support their work in any way that you are able
Until next time, good birding. Good day!