While I was birding in the San Juan Islands recently it was impossible to look over eBird and not be impressed that Phil Green seems to be everywhere on San Juan Island birding. He is the #1 San Juan County ebird lister by both species and checklists submitted, and often was the last birder to submit a list and most of the locations I was interested in visiting.
I used his eBird profile to find out that he was the resident Nature Conservancy employee on Yellow Island for many years, and seemed to be an interesting fellow. I reached out using his blog contact feature, and he agreed to be a guest on the podcast. I’m glad I did. Phil is a fascinating fellow, a passionate eBirder, and was really fun to talk with.
Check out his eBird profile here and his Yellow Island blog here.
Phil talks about the Cornell University Lab recording workshop. The 2021 workshop is cancelled due to Covid-19, but here is a link to their webpage.
The Nature Conservancy bought Yellow Island in 1979 and has preserved and restored the island habitat since. Their website gives more details, but the island was never used for grazing and so retains many of the native vegetation, and has a fabulous springtime wildflower show.
Bluebirds are being reintroduced to their historic range on San Juan Island. You can read about the effort here, and stay tuned for a future episode with Kathleen Foley to hear from one of the leaders of the effort. I am especially interested to hear the story because I believe some of the reintroduced birds are from the JBLM bluebird population I get to enjoy near home.
Please leave comments if you have thoughts to share.
Until next time, Good birding and good day!