“From Billions to None,” documenting the demise of the Passenger Pigeon was shown to ABC. The film had some excellent re-creations of the birds darkening the sky, simulating many eyewitness accounts. The concept of extinction and the extent of our culpability were explored, with one scientist postulating that the loss of Passenger Pigeons may have allowed the spread of Lyme disease that is happening now. The railroad enhanced the speed at which the birds were dispatched, along with the concurrent extirpation of the bison.
The film briefly looked at the artists who are bringing back extinct species to our senses, as well as actual researchers seeking to de-extinct Passenger Pigeons using DNA from museum specimens and Band-tailed Pigeon hybridization. So far, this has produced no birds, but the concept is expanding to other species now (Woolly mammoths, for example).
Joe Tieger remarked after the meeting ended that the take-away for him was when one of the scientists interviewed remarked that we (humans) are the equivalent of the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs.
After the film, we relaxed with two short subjects, the oft-watched Goshawk flying through incredibly narrow spaces easily, followed by our “cartoon” feature on flying penguins, which everyone enjoyed. Ed played the stooge at the end by asking, “Is that true?”
The group at the scopes early Saturday AM at the Mesa STP.
A contingent of ABCers in 3 vehicles met as usual for Eastern WA trips at the Snoqualmie Pass rest area on Wednesday Sept 4th and headed west. Our first stop was at the boat launch near Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, where we started looking for vagrant passerines, one of the primary goals of the trip. As was the case all day, sorting through Yellow-rumped Warblers in every variant of plumage for the Audubon’s race was the biggest challenge, but singing and calling Canyon Wrens were the highlight of the stop, with Say’s Phoebe and Yellow Warblers among the 15 species there. Up top, at the Ginkgo State Park it was slow so we made it a quick stop and headed for Getty’s Cove.
Our group on Day 4 after the Willette’s car arrived
At Getty’s Cove we enjoyed good looks at two of the three
vireo species seen there. Fortunately Red-eyed and Cassin’s were the two seen
well by most, and the more common Warbling Vireo was the only tough one to get
focus on. Wild Turkeys were seen, and
molted feathers collected by many, empids were confusing as can be with silent
fall birds, and we all started to get our warbler neck ache going.
Next at the Wanapum Recreation Area we saw a daytime Great
Horned Owl, at least 2 Townsend’s Solitaires, Red-necked Grebe and a Herring
Gull among 25 species and sat for lunch.
North Potholes Reserve took up most of our afternoon, and we
had 28 species there highlighted by a large flock of American Pipits, several
Lark Sparrows, a bright male Townsend’s Warbler, another Townsend’s Solitaire,
a fly-by Black-crowned Night Heron, but very few shorebirds.
We spent the first night in Moses Lake at the Inn at Moses
Lake, and ate at Michaels on the lake.
Thursday Sept 5th we started with a look at the
Winchester Rest Area Sewer Ponds, where there were only Killdeer as shorebirds.
Birder’s Corner off Dodson Road was better, with looks at a
Sora, our only Solitary Sandpiper of the
trip, plus good looks at Wilson’s Snipe, Long-billed Dowicher, Yellow-headed
Blackbird, and lots of dabbling ducks.
We spent the morning at Potholes State Park where again the
challenge was to sort anything else out of the seemingly everywhere Audubon’s Yellow-rumped
Warblers. We conservatively estimated
350 of these for our eBird list, but there may have been >1000. We all got nice looks at a Nashville Warbler,
several Orange-crowned Warblers, a Lincoln’s Sparrow, Pine Siskin, a Sharp-shinned
Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. There was a
nice flock of Western Sandpipers, at least two Semi-palmaged Sandpipers but a
low diversity of shorebirds.
A highlight of the trip was a Sabine’s Gull sighted from the
O’Sullivan Dam Road stop flying with small terns. Ken and Ed got long in-flight looks in
scopes, and at least a few others managed to get onto the gull with binos. We tried for a while for better looks, going
back to the boat launch area for a while, but could not relocate the bird.
Lind Coulee after lunch on Thursday was the shorebird
highlight of the trip, but immediately on arrival at the upper overlook 4
Sandhill Cranes were the first thing that caught the attention of everyone. We
quickly forgot about them though as at least 60 Lesser Yellowlegs, 13 Wilson’s Snipe
1 Baird’s Sandpiper, 3 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 7 Pectoral Sandpiper, and both Least
and Western Sandpipers along with over 60 Killdeer seemed everywhere. This was one of the highest recent counts for
LEYE that any of us could remember.
We were exhausted after a long day of searching for birds,
and were happy to find rest at a hotel in Othello, with Mexican food for
dinner.
Friday we started with a fly-by Merlin in the parking lot of
the hotel as we loaded up for the day. A
quick stop at Hatton Coulee Rest Stop sewer pond gave much better looks at
Baird’s Sandpiper, a good look at a Semipalmated Sandpiper, and got the day off
to a good start. This was a day for looking for rare eastern vagrants, and as
that sort of day can go we didn’t really find any, but were pretty happy to
find other good stuff, though not much at Washtucna, our next stop. Diane, Fay,
Laurel and Melissa joined us in Washtucna for the rest of the trip. Lyon’s
Ferry was much birdier though, after we left the waterfront to get out of the
wind. Along the road into the old
camping area we saw a White-breasted Nuthatch, a House Wren, a Barn Owl, and at
least 7 very unusual Evening Grosbeak, and again tons of YRWAs. The grosbeaks were fun, as Faye saw them at
the same time and in nearly the same place that many of us were looking at a
flock of Cedar Waxwings. As the birds
took flight we all heard the loud flight call of the grosbeaks. Ken was
startled, saying I could hear that, thinking it was the waxwings, and several
of us knew immediately it was not the waxwings, and Melissa added that she
thought it sounded like Evening Grosbeaks.
Consensus agreed, and then Faye told us she had seen them perched. Ken gave her grief for not pointing them out
to us, and I suggested we sit, do our eBird list and see if they would
return. We soon heard them again, and 7
of them flew right overhead for good looks and photos.
I convinced Ken to cross the river, to try for some Columbia
County birds as we seemed ahead of time, and I added 4 new county birds,
Osprey, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brewer’s Blackbird and Barn Swallow, and Diane snagged
a needed diet cola to fend off her withdrawal headache.
Our last stop of the day was going to be the Connell Sewer
Ponds, but as there were few ducks and almost no shorebirds there we Ken aimed
us to the Scooteney Reservoir where we scanned a flock of gulls, managed to
pick Bank Swallows out of the more numerous Barn Swallows, and squinted to ID
very distant ducks.
Friday night we stayed in Connell, and ate at the next-door
family restaurant for dinner and breakfast Saturday AM.
Saturday we met Jason Fidorra at the Mesa (in WA pronounced Me-Sah not Meah-sah like in AZ) STP, an area usually inaccessible, and a good spot especially in the AM with great light for shorebird observation and photography. We had great looks at Lesser Yellowlegs, along with peeps, Spotted Sancpiper and a few ducks. Jason is encouraging the city to make the area open to birders to promote birding tourism in the area. Great stuff Jason!
Jason Fidorra with trip leaders Ed Pullen and Ken Brown (L to R)
We finished the trip with stops at Lind Coulee, the O’Sullivan Dam Road again hoping for looks at the Sabine’s Gull and had to settle there for early Snow Geese found by Ken on a distant rock in the lake, had lunch at the state park again, tried for a Northern Waterthrush seen earlier in the day without success, and ended at Perch Point, where shorebirds were largely lacking.
Overall a fine trip, good company,
good birds, and 134 species on 27 eBird Checklists. See the eBird summary
below.
I didn’t have my camera working,
so have few photos to add, maybe Pat and Kirsten can add links to some photos in
the comments below.
ABC was well represented on todays Westport Seabirds pelagic trip. Ken and I went down yesterday, birded a bit in the afternoon and headed for the Monte Carlo this AM. On arrival we joined Joe and Maggie Tieger and Terry and Karen Gillis along with Bruce LaBar and Cara Borre as a spotters.
Lirk Zufelt, co-author of a new seabirds book and participant on the pelagic trip.
On arrival Bruce told me about Amar Ayysh, a well known Chicago area birder, who is a renouned gull expert. I had a chance to sit and talk with Amar on the ride back in today. He is in the research part of writing a book on North American gulls, with visits to both the UPS Slater Museum and the U.W. Burke Museum, both places well known for their outstretched wing collections.
As a part of the welcome today, Bruce talked about what he feels are the best resources for birders to use in study before or reference during or after a pelagic trip, and he mentioneKirk Zufelt. After the welcome, Bruce was perusing the book, and one of the birders on board asked him what the thought of the book. Bruce raved about how he loved the book, and asked the guest if he had looked at the book. He replied, Ï wrote it.” Kirk Zufelt is an avid pelagic birder from what he tongue-in-cheek calls the pelagic headquarters of the world, Sault Ste Marie, Ongtario, Canada, who is on a quest to see every seabird in the world. You can read about it at his website: Pelagic Odyssey. His book is Oceanic Birds of the World: A Photo Guide.
I had a chance to talk with Kirk also, and he is a practicing pediatrician who is going on both of this weekends Westport Seabirds trips as a handy adjunct to visiting his daughter who lives near or in Vancouver, BC.
Top birds on the trip today were Flesh-footed Shearwater, both small terns, both phalaropes, Long-tailed Jaeger as a part of the Skua Slam (in Europe) or Jaeger Slam (in the U.S. just does not sound as cool) with all three jaegers plus South Polar Skua.
All this plus nice weather after a minor squall on the ride out, moderate seas, and fairly warm temperatures.
Ken Brown and Ed Pullen will be leading a 4-day 3-night Eastern Washington trip looking for migrating shorebirds, vagrant passerines, and whatever else we can find leaving Wednesday Sept 4 and returning Saturday Sept 7th. We will visit the usual places along the Columbia River, Potholes, Washtucna, Lyons Ferry, and other spots.
We will stay in motels, eat dinners out and breakfast either out or at hotel spreads. Bring lunches, water, etc. Meet at the Travelers Rest Stop at Snoqualmie Pass at 7:30. Contact Ken by email for resevations. Limit 4 vehicles. Ken will keep a waiting list.
There is no telling what we will find, but a good variety of shorebirds is likely, and an uncommon eastern passerine or two would not be unexpected.
Ed Pullen opened the meeting, introducing Eric Dudley, currently the WOS president, to lead the book discussion. Some short announcements were made. Diane let the group know about the recent deaths of Melody Mayer and Bill Scheidt, which were quite a shock about this power couple.
Book cover
The discussion was very well attended and lively, to say the least, with no holds barred. Eric opened by talking about Kenn Kaufman and his previous books, especially his wild and wildly successful description of his first Big Year (and one of the first publicized Big Years ever), “Kingbird Highway.” Since much of Kenn Kaufman’s new book revolved around spring warbler migration at McGee Marsh in northwest Ohio and the fairly new “Biggest Week in Birding” festival there, which has just exploded, we were lucky to have many people in attendance who had birded there or nearby. In fact, Shep Thorp, who works nights and is unable to attend our meetings, takes a group every year, and we heard all about that. Accommodations near McGee Marsh are sparse, so info was exchanged among our group on where to stay and where to eat. Surrounding hotspots such as Point Pelee were also discussed.
Art and Laurel show off McGee shirts. Laurel’s has her birds check off!
A funny aside is that a large percentage of birders in attendance were wearing McGee Marsh or eastern warbler t-shirts, not just the Willettes! Laurel even had the warblers that she had seen in 2 consecutive years checked off on her shirt!
In his talk on bird names Ken asked the question, “What is a species?” I answered that the answer is evolving. On my latest podcast episode I talk with Dr. Geoffrey Hill, a professor at Auburn University, who proposes that the compatability of the DNA in the mitochondria, 100% from the female, and the DNA in the nucleus, equally from the male and female (sort of but not really as in birds a lot of the DNA that codes for proteins used in the mitochondrial functioning and structure are coded for on the male sex chromosome, males are ZZ and females Zy). I write about this on a BirdBaner.com blog post and we talk about it on the podcast episode. If you’re interested in speciation I think you’ll find it pretty cool stuff. Link to my blog post summarizing my understanding of this theory.
After Ed Pullen’s Bird Banter podcast interviewed Dalton Spencer, we realized we needed to go birding with Dalton before he left for college in Montana in August! You can never tell when an 18-year-old whiz kid will end up, and we wanted to be able to say we knew him when! Dalton seemed kind of surprised that we would want him to lead a field trip, but we were right about him! We set out to Lewis County on June 22, 2019.
The field trip to Lewis County ABC participants
Dalton led 4 carloads of ABC’ers with co-spotter Rachel Hudson, also a whiz kid from south of here. And the reports were not wrong!
They led us to Schaefer County Park, Centralia-Goodrich Road, Fort Borst Park, and Chandler Road, as well as lesser stops where they knew the odds were good for target species. Check out the eBird lists, which also include some of Rachel’s incredible photos:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57634388
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57634486
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57634591
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57634643
More photos from Diane are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76552838@N03/albums/72157709226298557
Dalton took us to the river, or rather several rivers, starting with Skookumchuck, then Chehalis River and Lincoln Creek and everything in between.
Highlights were Red-breasted Sapsuckers of all ages everywhere! A Black-headed Grosbeak sitting on a nest! Nesting Orioles! An Anna’s Hummer on a nest! Baby Downy Woodpeckers, baby Bushtits, baby Creepers, baby everything!
Red-breasted Sapsuckers were THE woodpeckers of the day
The culmination of the day was at the cemetery on Chandler Road where the hoped-for Hermit Warbler was heard immediately by our intrepid leaders, then seen by all. A little confusion ensued over a hybrid hanging around with the Hermit, but the hybrid was mostly Hermit, not the more typical HETO with streaking on the front.
Hermit Warbler! A lifer for some of us. (Photo/Rachel Hudson)
Hermits still haven’t been swamped out at this site. A life for several of our group!
Not just one Kestrel, but at least 3! (Photo/Rachel Hudson)
The day ended with a closer look at a Lazuli Bunting, to make up for an incredibly distant look earlier. Everyone went home very happy!
On June 11, 2019, ABC shared a close-up encounter with endangered birds of Hawai’i with Clarice and Jerry, who volunteered to work on a couple of different islands with various endangered species, a category into which most native species fall for various reasons.
6-11-19 – Jerry & Clarice educate ABC about Hawai’i
Clarice described finding a worthwhile project for them. They both have lots of projects on their resume including banding in most of the central America nations. She was frustrated by many of the potential projects that not only wanted you to pay all your own expenses but subsidize the project and then do mostly housework and cleanup. At last they found these Hawai’i projects that seemed to be the answer. Of course the terrain turned out to be not only roadless, but impassable, requiring helicopters part of the time!
6-11-19 – Clarice and Cali try to find trails
And what’s with those Nomex flight suits requiring particular underwear anyway? Clarice quoted the New York Times mentioning that journalists and photographers following the researchers can’t take it — one had to be flown out after 24 hours, as if she were “used to pine trees or something, or trails.”
6-11-19 – Clarice second from right in heli flight suit6-11-19 – Home above the mosquitos
The endemic birds of the islands have a long history of serious challenges, one of the first major ones being the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778, with many extinct species from that time only identifiable from subfossils (not quite completely fossilized yet). Exotic species since then have had their way with the birdlife, including ungulates, cats, and worst of all — mosquitoes bringing avian malaria, which is why you can barely find any native honeycreeper species below 5000 feet, an altitude that is climbing with global warming. They all descend from Asiatic Rosefinches on Oahu before Kaui was even a blog in the ocean, and there were no mammalian predators or mosquitos. Species which have colonized the islands in more recent times sometimes have some immunity to mosquitos, but not to the other threats. But not all mosquitos are as bad as the Culex genus, which kills 93% of I’iwis that get bitten, the most iconic red honeycreeper of all. Various methods of control are being invented including baits (“stinky” water) and even recordings!
6-11-19 – Before Captain Cook (1778)
The good news is that there seems to be the will to save these birds, citing recent avoidable extinctions as a rallying cry. The new rat traps that really work (see video) are good news! But those cats that develop a particular taste for seabird fledglings are an even bigger problem than the usual very bad outdoor cats, whether feral or pet (but indoor cats are fine pets). Toxoplasmosis is hitting the population pretty badly as well, and it is spread almost entirely by cats (read the article for the complicated method of spreading). Pig wallows and exotic plant and tree invasions are somewhat successfully being countered with special fencing and re-terraforming the islands.
6-11-19 – A surprising way to save birds with laser lights
The Seabird Recovery Plan took them down to sea level. The problems include cats and Barn Owls (which were introduced to take care of the rats!), as well as lack of food, which stable isotope analysis tracked persuasively to the arrival of humans who also ate fish. Stable isotope analysis also can tell what a cat eats, which is how they found out there are seabird chick specialists among the cats. Collisions with power lines surprisingly are a major threat. Adding lasers or LED deflectors seems to be a possible way to go.
6-11-19 – Albatross successfully relocate!
Midway Island is undergoing translocations of albatross colonies away from missile ranges and also to O’ahu to save them from the rising seas threatening the lower elevation Midway. Luckily, the Albatross have no problem with being moved!
June 11, 2019 – An assortment of Hawai’i shirts (including the back of Terry’s shirt featuring the state fish)
Last Wednesday my condo in Tacoma was a stopover for a small flock of Willettes. Diane, Faye and Laurel came by to drink wine (with bird labels of course), watch the sailboat races, and record an episode of the podcast. Fun was had by all and I hope you’ll enjoy the episode.
On April 17th, Joe and Maggie Tieger took us along with them on their recent trip to Madagascar, the fourth largest islands in the world and isolated enough (250 miles off Africa’s east coast) to be stuffed with endemics, both fauna and flora.
Madagascar places Joe & Maggie visited
Tropical Birding Tours was very good to them, not cancelling the tour when more people didn’t sign up, so they had two excellent guides to themselves. They were able to see an extraordinary number of endemics of all types including most of the birds, lemurs, lizards, and plants, but the wrong season for the famous frogs, alas!
Joe and Maggie Tieger present to ABC, 4-17-19
They started out their slide show with an overview of Madagascar, history, climate, culture, etc. It’s one of the poorest places on earth, human-wise, and the infrastructure shows it, including traffic, sanitation, and lack of upkeep on wildlife refuges. They did have some good accommodations in the first half of their circuit of the country, but in the second half there was a lot lacking and some resultant illness.
Dancing Lemur (Photo J&M Tieger)
About the time some of us were thinking we’d never go there, they started in on lemurs, and suddenly we were enthralled again! The lemurs were truly magical and many of them quite approachable, as humans were not on their predator radar. Sizes ranged from mouse-size to almost human scale, with those long talented tails on most, but surprisingly not all. The lizards were also amazing and varied.
Birds were fabulous. Many of them appeared to be African species, but recent DNA has shown their isolation has made new species or subspecies, so many endemics. In fact, 90% of the birds are endemic species or subspecies! These include several Kingfishers, and Carole Breedlove was on hand to appreciate seeing them again after including Madagascar on her world travel for Kingfishers.
Madagascar Blue Vanga (Photo J&M Tieger)
The Vangas were the equivalent of Darwin’s finches for Madagascar. All descending from the original Vanga, the many current species imitate finches, flycatchers, woodpeckers, and many other types of birds. And many are beautiful, too.
Joe and Maggie Tieger tell us about Madagascar
One interesting aside about photographing birds is that the guides on this trip had very bright flashlights and used those instead of flash photography. Joe explained that most of their shots were lit this way and how much easier it was to focus and click on an item already lit up for the camera.
The Tiegers’ photo book
When they got home, they put together a photo book in lieu of printing their best shots. It was one of the best photo books I’ve ever seen and the ultimate souvenir for a birder. Thanks, Joe and Maggie!
