ABC SHRUB-STEPPE FIELD TRIP, APRIL 10, 2016

They don’t call Andy Stepniewski “Steppie” for nothing, as he is a foremost authority on Shrub-Steppe habitats in the northwest. Andy and his wife Ellen met us at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning after we’d all had exciting treks eastward on Saturday. Amazingly, we had a blazing sunrise and perfect weather! None of that wind Andy had forebodingly warned us about.

With most of us westerners just enjoying our first spring birds in early April, it was interesting to hear Andy tell us that on the Shrub-Steppe, all the action is March through May, with summer and winter quiet times for birds as well as vegetation. He quoted Dennis Paulson who said something along the lines of, “There is no place so dead in Washington in the wintertime as the Shrub-Steppe.”

The wildflowers and of course those all-important bunchgrasses, of which there are a bunch, were studied in depth in person. More information on these plants and habitats is to be found in, “Birds of Yakima County, 2nd Edition,” by Andy, of course. It’s available from Yakima Valley Audubon on their website:

http://yakimaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/08/Birds-of-Yakima-County.doc.pdf

Even though Andy operates out of Yakima County, the Shrub-Steppe does not obey artificial county bounds, so the field trip spent lots of time in Kittitas and Grant counties, visiting several well-known hot spots as well as some unknown sites to some of us.

Besides bunchgrasses and flowers, sagebrush and its look-alikes are king. Andy had us smell and taste the leaves of a sage and a bitterbrush to bring us into the zone. View some of his comments on the FLICKR site below. Moviette was too large to load here.

As for birds, a few of us were thrilled to be birding east of the mountains BEFORE the arrival of those nasty empidonax flycatchers who live to confuse us. Most of our expected and desired species were seen, with particularly thrilling looks and listens at Long-billed Curlew, Wilson’s Snipe, Sandhill Crane, Black-necked Stilt, and COPULATING American Avocets! Other exciting birds included White-throated Swifts, Great Horned Owl, Loggerhead Shrike, Mountain Bluebirds, Horned Larks, and of course those Shrub-Steppe specialties, Sagebrush Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, and Sage Thrasher, seen and heard well. The soundtrack for the day was provided by Vesper Sparrows and Western Meadowlarks. Feasts for eyes and ears!

The flowers were mostly elfin, and some of them grew in bunches, looking like bouquets! Ellen was frequently taken aside by the botanizers among us, and flowers were ID’d and photographed. Those people who stand tall miss so much at toe height! With Ellen being an expert in this field, those two Stepniewskis make quite a power couple.

Special thanks goes to Kay Pullen who helped pull this field trip together along with the sparrow workshops with Dennis Paulson earlier in the week. Then she kept track of all the species for eBird, too!

Many photos were taken. Laurel and Heather will put links to their photos in the Comments section of this site when they’ve had a chance to edit them. Anyone else who wants to share photos is encouraged to do this, also, such as Richard. Diane’s photos are on FLICKR at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76552838@N03/albums/72157664855173204

Our ABC group as pictured here at the Ginkgo SP Interpretative Center included:
SITTING: ELLEN STEPNIEWSKI, Petrea, Kathy, Faye, Laurel, Donna.
STANDING: Ken, Carolyn, Richard in hat, Ted, Mary, Mike, ANDY STEPNIEWSKI, Carol, Jody, Heather, Ryan, Kay, Diane.

Shrub-steppe field trip, April 10, 2016. Taken at Ginkgo SP.

As an aside, just a couple of weeks ago, the local newspaper did a story on Andy, and it’s pretty thrilling, as well as informative (thanks to Heather for providing the link):
http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/survivor-bear-attack-redefined-how-he-lives-his-life-but/article_d24da4d2-f3e2-11e5-8549-3fbdea3d5b30.html

A SALT & PEPPER SEABIRD SPECTACLE

ABC member Marcus Roening writes:

I had a scheduled trip to Whidbey Island on Monday, April 11, 2016, and elected to take the much more traffic-friendly trip up the west side of the sound and take the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, Whidbey Island. It was a perfect day for saltwater viewing with a high overcast, no wind, minimal wave action and about 3 hours after low tide (or at least 3 hours after the cancelled ferry runs : –) ). The show began while waiting in line, as I watched a pair of Harlequin Ducks diving around the ferry pilings and a flock of Black Brant feeding on the adjacent beach. Once on the ferry, I high-tailed it to the top to get eye to eye with the Cormorants perching on the pilings.

While most of the year the cormorants are variations on brown and black, it is this time of year that they truly shine. The Brandt’s Cormorant can be a show stealer with their white plumes of feathers poking out in fine white sprays on their head, neck & scapulars. But it is when you can get a good sideways look, especially with sun in the background, that you get to see their electric blue gular pouch – truly amazing! And not to be outdone on the same set of pilings, the Pelagic Cormorants were showing off their white flank patches and brilliant dark red face. Heck, even the Double-crested Cormorants were showing their brighter orange than usual gular and their two black wispy crests.

As the ferry continued east, it looked as if some giant pepper & salt shakers had been knocked over onto the Sound. In the middle was a mass of 300-400 dark birds and as the ferry came upon the mass, it was clear that they were Rhinoceros Auklets. They were so close to the ferry, that I could clearly see their white head plumes and their little rhino horns. As I scanned around the mass I realized that there were at least another 400 Rhinos scattered evenly across the water. The human brain boggles at trying to count such numbers and to be in the middle of such a group of at least 800 birds was a very special treat. And that was only counting the ones that were above the water.

Rhinoceros Auklets, April 2016.

And just to keep things lively, there were Bonaparte’s Gulls in their Black-headed finery, Glaucous-winged Gulls with glaucous wing tips, truly “Red”-necked Grebes, Common Murres, Marbled Murrelets and a one group of 63 Pigeon Guillemots working the tidal rip.

It was a great day to be birding.

Marcus Roening, Tacoma WA

SPARROW WORKSHOP REPORT – April 5 & 6, 2016, with Dennis Paulson.

Our mentor, Dennis Paulson, retired director of the Slater Museum, Master Birding instructor, and authority on shorebirds, dragonflies, and everything else that flies, brought ABC’ers up to snuff on LBJs!

Emily and Kevin study sparrows while Dennis Paulson stands by.

Larus gull dominates sparrows at Slater.

Rufous & Anna’s Hummingbird skeletons.

Margie, our leader Dennis Paulson, Ken Brown, and Ryan Wiese birdwatching.

Dennis Paulson surrounded by Slater Museum groupies.

Sparrows!

Some interesting factoids included:
ANY sparrow can have a breast spot, not just those who are supposed to.
That rufous on a Vesper’s wing is at the WRIST, in cast you thought that was the shoulder.
Sagebrush Sparrows run around like mini Roadrunners.
A notched tail can look square, then round, as the bird spreads it.
Fox Sparrow subspecies leapfrog each other in migration patterns.
Most birds that live in thickets cock their tails, including many sparrows, not just wrens.
Chipping Sparrows are the only sparrows that migrate in juvenile plumage.
Yes, Juncos are breeding more on the west side than in time past. It’s not just your imagination.

After the classroom instruction, a fun time was had by all in the museum, noticing how tiny the specimens were and how different Song Sparrows are compared to Lincoln’s Sparrows, as opposed to living birds. A few non-Sparrows were also admired, such as the hummingbird skeletons and the Bat Mobile.

Thanks, Dennis. You can be sure we’ll be after you again for more instruction in the future.

ABC FEBRUARY 2016 MEETING REPORT:
LIFE NET NATURE/Ecuador:

On February 16, 2016, ABC’ers were entertained and educated by three of our own, Mike Walker, Jerry Broadus, and Clarice Clark, on their experiences banding and otherwise counting birds at the Life Net Nature site in Ecuador at the Las Tangaras (Tanagers) Reserve in the tropical Andes. The group was so thrilled that we practically had to be kicked out of our room at the library or we would have been there all night.

The history of this reserve, one of several throughout the world administered by Life Net, is another example of one person making a huge difference in the knowledge deficit surrounding tropical birds, this person being the founder of the reserve, Dr. Dusti Becker. Just a few days of observing and banding in this reserve almost always turns up something previously unknown to science.
Mike started out with this history, which he knows well, having done 5 volunteer stints there by now. He was definitely recruiting for the next December period. This last time there were 7 volunteers besides the staff, and his map showed the ABC Team (3) plus 2 from Utah and 2 from the east, so only 7 people. Mike made it sound like Paradise, which perhaps it is, with great food, luggage carriers (burros), and a swimming waterhole. The lodge must be hiked into, so not a lot of riffraff. The swinging bridge wasn’t loved by all (Clarice!), and the barracks sleeping quarters weren’t like the Hilton, but running water, occasional electricity, clean air, and the music of the jungle. Volunteers pay $1650 from Quito for 2 weeks all inclusive, part of which is fundraising, but anyone who’s priced birding in this area will recognize this as a darn good deal.

The forest was so dense that it was hard to see birds, but the huge network of mist nets turned up amazing finds that would never have been seen just with binoculars. The photos were great and were taken by our team, either at Las Tangaras or nearby afterwards.

A crowd pleaser was the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, which the team got very acquainted with via photos and videos of lekking males. Wow! Not a really melodic dawn chorus, though!
Jerry led us through the banding process including the amazing Club-Winged Manakins, which they were able to both examine in the hand while banding plus get video of that amazing wing-slap sound!

Clarice ended the presentation with the dessert — Hummingbirds! There are so many species (30+) that in short daily counts watching 3 feeders, the team relied on cheat sheets. Some were caught for banding in the mist nets, but most of the banded hummers were caught with a feeder trap. One of the miniscule bands was passed around for the group to see the size. Attaching these to the tarsi of tiny birds was a painstaking and even scary process.

The website for the organization is currently not working well, although if you persevere and scroll to the bottom you can find most of the meat about the projects and how to volunteer:
http://lifenetnature.org/index.php/volunteer/andes-mountains-south-america/
Also: https://lastangaras.wordpress.com/who-are-we/

APRIL 10, 2016:  Yakima County with Andy & Ellen Stepniewski!  

MAY 18, 2016, 6:45 PM, Pierce County Library Administration Building, 3005 112th St E, Tacoma, WA 98446 (near Highway 512).  Dr. Ursula Valdez teaches at UW-Bothell, is a native of Peru, and refers to herself as a tropical ecologist with a research interest in predator ecology. She has facilitated classes taught simultaneously at the U and in Peru, using Skype. These classes focused on shared concerns between the northwest and Peru of biodiversity and climate change. Professor Valdez is also adept with social media to spread her message. She served as Raptor Ecologist at the Los Amigos River Biological Station and did research in the Amazon rain forest on Forest Falcons for her PhD.  In addition to teaching at the U, she also teaches a field course in the Andes and Amazon in Peru.  Find out about her mission and the very exciting birds she knows personally including Harpy Eagle!
More info:

http://www.uwb.edu/ias/faculty-and-staff/ursulavaldez

http://commons.bcit.ca/catttrax2/peru/action/

Ursula Valdez of Peru and UW-Bothell, an expert on forest falcons

ABC Meeting, February 16, 2016:  6:45 PM, University Place Library:

LIFE NET Nature/Ecuador – Banding:  Special Presentation on LIFE NET Nature and their work in Las Tangaras Reserve near Mindo, Ecuador. Our own intrepid bird banders, Mike Walker, Jerry Broadus, and Clarice Clark, were there in December to band birds and will tell us all about it. Mike has done this for 3 seasons and got Jerry & Clarice to join him this time.  This reserve is WAY off the beaten path, and you are unlikely to stumble across it unless you’ve volunteered.

Mike is a biologist, bird-bander, birding class instructor for Tahoma Audubon, and does many projects including counting swifts at the JBLM chimney with his wife, Jodi.

Jerry and Clarice are surveyors and are past recipients of Tahoma Audubon’s service award for their donation of surveying the Morse Preserve when it was acquired several years ago. Jerry is also an attorney and is currently on the board of directors for Tahoma Audubon. They currently travel extensively in their birdbanding capacity.

Join us to hear these exciting adventures in the tropics and learn about what it takes.   Up to 18 different species of Hummingbirds have been banded during one of these volunteer Decembers!

Clarice Clark and Jerry Broadus banding at TAS’ Morse Preserve.

Mike Walker bands a Toucanet in Ecuador.

The evening of January 28, 2016, ABC held its annual self-congratulatory party with Big Year reports, member photos, and refreshments (Thanks to Vera, Faye, & Kay).

After announcements of coming TAS and ABC events, Big Year reports started with Brian Pendleton, who didn’t start out to do a Big Year, but ended up with the 2nd biggest list for the entire state and #34 in the U.S!  Then Bruce LaBar was up as #1 in Pierce County and #10 in WA.  Ed (#2 in Pierce, 7th in Kitsap) and Kay Pullen talked about their Big Years and the exodus of local birders to Texas in November for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.  Marcus Roening as #3 in the county gave his report next, as well as a report on his July trip to Alaska.  Ken Brown then talked about his Kitsap and state Big Year (#2 in Kitsap) and how eBird has made this kind of birding possible.  Cara Borre’s video account of her Mason County (#1) Big Year was then shown to the audience’s delight.

We had a short break for goodies, at which time those who wore Malheur shirts/caps to celebrate the NWR’s liberation got together:

ABCers support Malheur NWR

We had lots of fun looking at everyone’s 5 best photos from the past year!  Participation was high, and we barely got through before we were thrown out!  Thanks, all!

On January 23, 2016, Dave Grenier led ABCers and other birders around Capitol Lake on a dark and stormy morning!  The weather report was wrong, and in the wrong direction!  It never stopped, but we took on the roles of storm watchers as we experienced the glory and the wetness of the Deschutes River in full roil!

At Tumwater Falls

From Tumwater Falls to the state capitol, we stopped at every stop and saw every bird that was crazy enough to be out!  However, that netted us HUGE numbers of Canvasbacks, not to mention an argument among some of us about whether a particular goose was a Lesser Canada or a Cackler.

A truly memorable morning testing our rain gear and experiencing scenes of watery madness we may never see again.  Thanks, Dave!

The quiet end of Capitol Lake on Jan 23, 2016.