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!
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.
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.
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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.
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.