Tag: birding

The Bird Banter Episode #29 with Christian Hagenlocher Additional Info


In this episode Christian talks at length about his recent trip to Attu. Attu has a rich history of being a place where rarities can be found like no other place. I believe the book Christian mentions in the podcast is Attu: Birding on the Edge by Crista Waters. It is available on Amazon

Here is the link to the place to preorder Christian’s new book Falcon Freeway.

The National Audubon Society Hog Island Camp can be looked at here.

Here is the company Christian is guidingfor.

Here is the boat used for the Attu tour. M/V Pukuk on a tour with Zugunruhe Birding Tours.

I’ve looked at several Attu trip reports, and there really are not that many “highly likely” species I could add to my ABA life list that are not almost as likely on a trip to Gambel or Adak. Mega rarities would certainly be more likely, but at this time I don’t see Attu in my birding future.

Good birding. Good day.

Note Related to TBBP #10 with John Sterling.


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.

Cocha Antshrike photo of a female from The Internet Bird Collection website gallery.

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.

Brewer’s Sparrow photo, credit on link above.

Please leave comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thanks.

Good birding. Good day!

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #6: Ed Takes Ken Birding

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.

One of the more recent exotic introduced specise to be accepted as “listable” by the ABA. Eguptian Goose.
A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.

Wrapping up Southern California Trip

A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.

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.

One of the more recent exotic introduced specise to be accepted as “listable” by the ABA. Egyptian Goose.
A Brown Booby from our fowl weather pelagic on Saturday out of San Diego.
A Cassin’s Aucklet too full of fish to take flight.
Black-vented Shearwater
Cactus Wrens at the Anza Borrego Visitor Center.

Enjoy the podcast. Good day. Good birding!

The Bird Banter Podcast: Episode #3 with Bruce LaBar

Bruce is a longtime leader on the Westport Seabirds pelagic trips and loves pelagic birding. This is a Northern Fulmar seen on one of my trips with Bruce

Bruce LaBar is my second guest on The Bird Banter Podcast and I am flattered to have Bruce to talk to you. Bruce is a very accomplished birder, a bigtime lister in Washington, and is well known and respected in the birding community. Bruce is the #1 all-time lister in WA with a WA lifelist of 452 species seen in WA, as well as the #1 all-time lister in our home Pierce County, WA with 285 species seen. He is currently the #1 2019 lister in both WA and Pierce County also, and is a good birding buddy to me (and really to almost every local and regional birder) as he is such a nice person.

Black-footed Albatross is the common albatross off the WA coast.

Bruce and I did Pierce County Big Days in every month of 2018 (I missed Feb.) and added Pierce to the counties in WA with a big day in every month of the year. We talk a bit about that in his podcast episode.
Bruce spent his formative years in birding in California during the time when ABA birding exploded, the 1970-1990 time frame, and lists as his friends many of the legendary California birders of that era.
I think you’ll enjoy hearing from Bruce on this episode. Here is a link to the episode on the iTunes store. Enjoy.
Be sure to subscribe, and please give The Bird Banter Podcast a high “Star”rating and leave a reveiw if you can. Thanks.

A Great Day Today

Sandhill Crane seen in Orting today. Look how close it is to the parked car in a driveway in the residential neighborhood.

It’s been snowy in the Puget Sound area for a few days, and today I was starting to feel really anxious to get out side and go birding. That said, this morning it was raining hard, about 34 degrees, and just not reasonable to go birding.
The day started to pick up when Bruce LaBar texted to see if we could move his time to record The Bird Banter Podcast episode #3 up to this morning, since he chose not to try to drive to his yoga, and instead wanted to walk to my condo.

He got here about 10 AM and we recorded the episode. Here is the podcast.

After Bruce left I was able to get the post-production editing done, and publish the podcast, and decided to go for a walk. On the walk on the Ruston Way waterfront a flock of Bushtits made an appearance, for a Pierce County FOY species for me.

Just as I got home Michael Charest put out a text to our county listers that he had a Sandhill Crane in Orting. It appears that the heavy snow forced an immature SACR down and it has been foraging in a residential neighborhood since yesterday. I called Bruce and Will Brooks, and we dashed out to see the crane, exactly where Michael reported seeing it, and photos were had by all.

 

This went so easily we had time to drive the Orting Farm loop, where in the same location Will found a Swamp Sparrow last fall, one was calling from out in the field, and I heard it call several times clearly, and this made my second “county first” species of the day.

Pretty good stuff for a day that started as a weather-bound house day.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. You can also find it Here on the iTunes Store.

Good birding!

The Bird Banter Podcast: Episode #2 with Ken Brown

We saw this adult Cooper’s Hawk on our recent North-central WA ABC birding club field trip that Ken led.

Ken Brown is my first guest on The Bird Banter Podcast and I was very intentional in insisting the Ken be my first guest. The most important reason is that Ken has been my mentor, best birding buddy, good friend and travel buddy for many years. In addition Ken is a suberb birder, a great teacher of birding, and has been a supporter of many beginning and developing birders.

Gull identification is one of Ken’s strengths. Here is a Herring Gull along with other gulls at the Gog-li-hi-ti wetland mitigation in Tacoma, WA

We have been on many field trips both locally and across the U.S. For the last decade or so I have been Ken’s unofficial right-hand-man as he has led field trips for his birding class and for our ABC Birding Club. Ken is an expert at planning and leading field trips, and I help with submitting eBird lists, “croud control,” and with locating and occasionally identifying birds by ear as his hearing has diminished in recent years.
I hope our mutual respect and friendship come through on this podcast, and that you enjoy.
Here is a link to the podcast on the iTunes store.