Will Brooks, ace birder and student at UPS, presented to ABC on March 26, 2019, his research findings, “Song Recognition in a new White-crowned Sparrow Hybrid Zone: Studying Hybrid by Hybrid.”
Plumage differences
This project was helped along when Will received last year’s Washington Ornithological Society (WOS) Patrick Sullivan Young Birder’s Fund award. Tom Mansfield, speaking for Andy and Ellen Stepnewski and the PSYBF, said, “Will is a super person in addition to being an extremely talented birder. You can all be so proud of Will, as we are. Will epitomizes our profile of a PSYBF honoree. I know your ABC will learn much and enjoy the opportunity to meet and see Will.” In fact, Will showed a slide of his recording equipment, which he said was purchased with the WOS fund and made his astute analyses possible.
Subspecies dialects
Those of us who attended can now tell you all kinds of info about the songs of pugetensis and gambelii subspecies and whether they hybridize and where. These two subspecies are the two found in Washington and other parts of the western U.S., sometimes in overlapping areas. The sonograms showed that pugetensis has many dialects, but gambelii mainly just one. Song recognition varied as well, a factor in hybridization.
Will m
Recording equipment made possible by grant from WOS Young Birders Fund
entioned that he studied Hybrid by Hybrid by driving his Prius all over the Cascades, using playback of both subspecies and testing and recording reactions. Of course he had the fabled birder story of a flat tire in a no-cell region and finding his car did not have a spare! Luckily someone came by and rescued him!
He showed a map showing where the 10 of 13 pugetensis dialects principally occur. We have type #5 here.
Study sites
After hearing both subspecies, including several dialects of pugetensis, we’ve been educated! We now know what to watch for in appearance and songs of these beautiful sparrows.
Conclusions
Will ended his talk with some conclusions and a list of what’s next for him, including finishing up a few details, tying it in with genetics, and getting the research published in a journal.
Short-eared Owl found in Franklin County while traveling to the SE Corner
For at least 2 years Ken Brown and I have been thinking about making a winter birding trip to the Southeast corner of Washington. Several reasons have motivated us to visit this really cold and desolate area in winter, first of course that several species of gulls can be found there in winter more regularly than elsewhere in WA. Glaucous Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull are frequently seen in Asotin County. In addition, since eBird keeps such great track of bird sightings, and since neither of us had been to any of the three counties in SE WA since we started using eBird in 2012, our profile page showed a “big grey hole” lacking the color of having seen birds in Asotin, Garfield and Columbia counties. This year two birding friends, Ryan Wiese and Bryan Hanson asked to join us on the trip, and that was the motivation to make it happen this year.
Ken, Bryan and Ryan on our last day of the trip, cold but happy.
We took off on Friday Feb 15th at 6 AM and headed
over Snoqualmie Pass. The roads had finally been cleared from the recent very
heavy snow, and we got through uneventfully.
After crossing the Columbia on I-90 we headed southeast on Hwy 26 at
Vantage toward Othello. Bryan had not
birded much in the areas near our 3-county destination, so we made minor quick
stops and several travelling lists to fill in a few empty counties for
him. We made a quick stop to look at
Gray Partridge in Adams County, a new county bird for all of us sighted from
the car off Hwy 26.
From Hwy 26 we headed southwest on Hwy 261 and in Franklin County started to see our first birds of the open country including Gray Partridge again, Ringed-neck Pheasant, Northern Shrike and Rough-legged Hawk off Hwy 261. We also spotted a Short-eared Owl flying near Prescott. (see image above)
Finally we crossed the Snake River bridge at Lyon’s Ferry
and started birding in Columbia County at the marina. Highlights there were a
Golden Eagle, and we managed to see 26 species there, mostly waterfowl and
common land birds. At the Texas Rapids
Recreation Area on the road to Little Goose Dam we enjoyed great looks at
American Tree Sparrow, a tough bird to find in WA. This one was very obliging for photos.
Little Goose Dam itself was a bust, and we headed to
Starbuck. City birds were noted there,
but not much exciting. As we headed towards Lewis & Clark Trail Park we
started to see nice flocks of Lesser Goldfinches. For the rest of the trip we came Lewis &
Clark Trail Park in the afternoon was fairly ordinary, but we came back after dinner
to go owling, and got a Western Screech Owl calling as well as two Great Horned
Owls hooting. WESO was a first-of-year
species for all of us.
Friday night we stayed at the Best Western in Dayton, and
Saturday took Tuccannon Road for about 2 hours in Columbia County before
entering Garfield County. The Subaru performed beautifully on these snowy
roads, and we added our first Wild Turkey of the trip as we headed up the
slopes.
Entering Garfield County about 8:30 AM and Ryan spotted a
hidden Great Horned Owl in a thickly branched tree, for a good county bird. We came
down out of the highlands into the small city of Pomeroy, finding very little
at the city park, and we headed to the part of Central Ferry Canyon in Garfield
County. This was one of our birdiest stops of the trip, with 34 species found,
including a Lincoln’s Sparrow and many waterfowl. This area is a backwater off
the river, and has quiet waters for de staucks, geese, grebes and coots to feed
and roost in protected waters.
At a Habitat Management Area off Willow Gulch Road we found
a marshy area and looked hard for Swamp Sparrow without success but managed our
only Marsh Wren of the trip, along with Varied Thrush and a variety of land
birds. At a nearby river overlook we got excellent looks at a few Western
Grebes and one well marked Clark’s Grebe.
Being county listers we submitted a one-bird checklist as we spotted an
American Crow from the car while driving. Common Ravens are much more common than
crows in this area, so it was a county tick.
Cooper’s Hawk immature
Late in the day, almost as an afterthought Ken remembered
reading about Sweeny Gulch Road, so we decided to drive up and see what we could
find. We found the gallinaceous bird capital of Garfield County. Over a drive of about 2 miles we saw and
counted at least 98 Gray Partridge and 42 Ring-necked Pheasant. It seemed that
they were just everywhere in the snowy fields.
Finishing the day strongly, Ryan spotted what he thought was a Chukar
driving onHwy 12 into Clarkston, just before leaving Garfield County into Asotin
County. We barely could get off the Hwy, but managed to stop and determine that
there were both Chukar and Gray Partridge on the rocky slopes across the highway.
Hen Ring-necked Pheasant
We went crossed into Asotin County and made our last stop of
the day at Chief Timothy Park, a large park on the Snake River, where we picked
up our first Asotin County birds, mostly common waterfowl, robins, a few
sparrows, etc. We were amazed by the
quantity of owl pellets under seemingly every tree, and as it was nearly dark
waited as the sun set, to hear two Great-horned Owls hooting. We stayed the
next 2 nights at the Best Western in Clarkston. Good rooms with a 5 AM
breakfast!
Big Horn Sheep
We started our morning at Swallow’s Park along the river,
and accumulated a list of 24 species, but none of the uncommon gulls we were
hoping to see. For much of the rest of the day we birded the high country on
Asotin Creek Road and Cloverland Road.
Asotin Creek Road yielded Wild Turkey, at least one Harlan’s race of
Red-tailed Hawk, lots of Northern Harriers and RTHA, California Quail, and at
least 16 Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep.
The Cloverland Road side got up into much snowier wheat
fields, and as we got up onto the plateau Rough-legged Hawks replace most of
the Red-tailed Hawks, we had one Golden Eagle, and vast snowy vistas. IN the afternoon we visited areas around
Clarkston, including the wonderfully named Hell’s Canyon Marina. A Redhead (duck) was the highlight there
along with a Belted Kingfisher for the county.
We had an hour to kill before heading back up to Cloverland Road
at dusk hoping for a Short-eared Owl. We
spent the time at Chief Looking-glass Park along the river, and found several
nice county-first species including Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked
Duck, and Common Goldeneye.
Adult gray form Gyrfalcon
One more time we headed up Cloverland Rd hoping for a Short-eared
Owl foraging at dusk, but instead Ken spotted the bird of the trip. We stopped to see what a Red-tailed Hawk was
feeding on beside the road. As we drove up two ravens were harassing a RTHA who
was eating something beside the road. We stopped, and got out to look. The hawk had been picking at the spine and
wing remains of what appeard to be a Ring-necked Pheasant. Just as we started to leave Ken spotted a
distant raptor on a power pole, and instantly suspected a Gyrfalcon. He later admitted that the RNPH remains did
not make him suspect the Gyr, though it probably should have been a clue to all
of us, but we stopped, set up scopes, and viewed a gorgeous adult gray-morph
Gyrfalcon. We watched for a couple of
minutes, and then it very quickly flew across the road ahead of us and disappeared,
seemingly just to show us how incredibly fast they can fly. No Short-eared Owl, but no complaints from
this group.
On the way back to town a stop at Chief Looking Glass Park
gave us our first Barn Owl of the trip, and a first-of-year species for all of us. It screamed and flew out of the wooded area
at the end of the parking lot opposite the church.
On our last day we had the primary goal of birding the
Asotin County Regional Landfill. This is a throw-back dump, still open with
garbage exposed, and gulls congregate there to feed. It did not open until 8 AM so we drove out onto
Peola Road hoping for open field species. We had great success, picking out at
least 4 Lapland Longspurs and two Snow Buntings from the huge flocks of Horned
Larks. The LALO were FOY birds for all,
and really a tough bird to find many years in WA. The SNBU were of course
county firsts for all.
At the landfill we spent about an hour scoping through
gulls. The Glaucous Gull was easy, the biggest whitest gull among about 250-300
gulls there. No Lesser Black-backed Gull was located, but California, Ring-billed,
Herring, and a few Iceland (Thayer’s type) Gulls were studied and enjoyed.
Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk
We decided to drive home along the Columbia hoping to
relocate Ferruginous Hawks that had been seen in Dallesport near the airport
earlier this year, but had no luck. We
got home about 7 PM, tired, but very pleased with a great trip.
SERGIO BRINGS HIS RAPTORS TO ABC, February 5, 2019
Mike Walker introduces Sergio Seipke of Raptours to the ABC group on Feb 5, 2019
Sergio Seipke brought his stories of raptor-watching all over the world to ABC on February 5. His enthusiasm for these species led him, with famous raptor guy Bill Clark, to start Raptours. Our own Mike Walker had been on two of his trips and knew Sergio would be in the northwest about now doing the Skagit winter raptors with Bud Anderson, so he grabbed him to do a presentation for us!
Letter-winged Kite, one of many slides of various kites of the world
We were all astounded at Sergio’s experience and deep knowledge of these birds, not to mention his super photos and videos!
Vultures inviting us to the Himalayas!
His opening slide was of the most iconic raptor in the world, the elusive Harpy Eagle, along with Harpy stories, of curse. His slides also included one of his Argentinian riverside home which he described as Eden, with Raptors flying along the river right in front of the house. When he showed a slide of the gorgeous Black and White Eagle (or Hawk-Eagle to some), he admitted this was his favorite bird.
His many slides of Kites included Swallow-tailed Kites (featured on Raptours’ logo), which many of us have seen in Florida. Upon questioning, Sergio revealed his deep knowledge of the species, saying there are 5 separate populations which completely different ranges and migration patterns.
Sergio’s love of vultures led him to the Himalayas! His joy in this area planted a few seeds among ABC’ers. Then to Madagascar with its famed endemics!
Interestingly, Sergio wasn’t as keen on Veracruz, the Mexican migration bottleneck that many of us were hoping to visit. Apparently the birds fly very high there, making it difficult to see them well, let alone photograph.
It was also fun to see Mike and Bud in photos of some of the Raptours groups that Sergio spearheaded, and then to see a bunch of northwesterners in the Skagit census groups that Sergio joined. At the time of this posting, that event may have been canceled this year due to Snowmageddon, but we hope they were able to get some good figures anyway.
Sergio with some of his biggest fans, the Willettes!
In the question-and-answer time at the end, Sergio was asked about and showed his current equipment, although he apparently uses others as well. He is currently using Zeiss binoculars and Canon cameras. Upon Faye’s question about photographing with a smartphone, he let us know that most of the little videos were digiscoped with a smartphone!
Check out Sergio’s website: http://www.raptoursllc.com/
Thanks, Sergio!
I’m starting a new birding podcast, The Bird Banter Podcast, and guess who is my first guest? None other than our mentor, teacher and bird trip leader supreme Ken Brown. Check out his podcast episode at The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #2- Ken Brown
Subscribe to get future episodes on the iTunes store, Google Play podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or whereever you get your podcasts. If you don’t listen to podcasts, consider doing so, it is a great way to control what you hear and hear what you enjoy while driving or whenever you’d listent to the radio or music.
I hope you enjoy. Tell your friends on social media and in person. Thanks.
Nearly every big year included this Clay-colored Sparrow found by Will Brooks at 134th Street in Puyallup. Actually nearly every Pierce County Big Year relied heavily on Will’s findings.
ABC celebrated our birding achievements in 2018 with Big Year reports and best photos from all, with refreshments and merriment.
As usual, we had so much active participation that we ran overtime, but isn’t that a sign of a good time?
The Big Year reports started out with Carole Breedlove, who continues to search the earth for new kingfishers and other birds, but this past year covered Washington state thoroughly as well. She doesn’t e-bird, so it’s nice that she keeps us in the loop.
Many reports followed including the duos of Jerry Broadus and Clarice Clark, followed by Marcus Roening and Heather Ballash, both highlighting Spanish-language birding, Ecuador for Jerry & Clarice, Mexico for Marcus and Heather
A highlight was Ed Pullen’s report on how to get a really big year in Washington without being an expert or trying too hard, which was both hilarious as well as instructive! Bottom line: Go on all the ABC field trips and add a couple of others such as a pelagic, and pay attention to the experts! I believe this was Ed’s way of explaining how he became the expert he is today. Here is a link to a PDF of the presentation.
Bruce LaBar, Marcus, Ken Brown and others talked about using eBird and Washington Birder county lists, getting to the magic number of 253 in the 253 area code, and sharing sightings.
Essentially every WA big year depends on Westport Seabirds to get us out to find pelagic species, like this Northern Fulmar.
Heather Voboril and Laurel Parshall gave meticulous presentations, carrying on the tradition that Heather started several years ago of women reporting! Both had well-organized professional quality photographs, and both projected their personal birding excitement.
We ended up with special guest star Blair Bernson, the #1 birder in the state for the year, who outlined his plan to cover the country with his progress so far with numerical quotas, photographing as he goes. He was set to head off next day for New Mexico. Here is a link to Blair’s website where you can follow his birding posts and enjoy his photography and writing.
The 5 best photos will continue with those we missed! This is very enjoyable for all, and ABC will post the 5 best for each soon, whether or not you attended the party!
Lunar Eclipse from the parking lot of the Omak Inn on Saturday night.
When Kay and I took the kids on any kind of trip, one of our family traditions was that we tried to “finish strong.” On this trip the group did just that. At about 1:50 PM, after not finding Bohemian Waxwing anywhere, including the usually reliable Central Ferry Canyon Road, I got a text from Shep Thorp that his group had located a Snowy Owl on Heritage Road on the Waterville Plateau. After brief discussion we decided to go for it, though not on a direct route home.
A cropped photo of the Prairie Falcon.
As Fred led the 60 mph plus dash there we spotted a distant bird on a large erratic in a field off Hwy, 172, and presto, our only Prairie Falcon was added to the list.
Snowy Owl distant photo.
We did a dance and continued to the spot for the SNOW. As we got close to the described spot, our eyes in our back, namely Ryan and Bryon in the back car who all trip had been picking up great birds we drove by, radioed that they may have the owl. Sure enough, a very white, mile-distant Snowy Owl was perched on a small pile of rocks in a wheat field, and we all got nice scope views and some distant photos.
The ride home was uneventful.
We one time used the color of cows as a location landmark. I like this rear-end shot of these cattle.
Now the rest of the story. We met at the Snoqualmie Rest stop, and headed for Confluence Park in Wenachee. Birds on the water were few, but we did make the eBird alert with a single Greater White-fronted Goose mixed with a large flock of Canada Geese and a few Cackling Geese on the lawns.
Up on the Waterville Plateau we found the expected large flocks of Horned Larks, good numbers of Snow Buntings, Rough-legged and Red-tailed Hawks, but no Gray Partridge, no Prairie Falcons, Gyrfalcons, or Snowy Owls. At the Heritage Road site we found the flock of American Tree Sparrows, but they were very skittish and good looks were had by only a few. No Long-eared Owl was found.
Coopers Hawk
We finished day 1 looking for raptors, especially the SNOW on the plateau and headed for Omak as darkness settled. Dinner at the Breadline was as expected, good.
Day 2 we headed up to the Okanogan Highlands, and the first major stop was indicative or our success this trip on gallinaceous species. No Chuckar, no Gray Partridge, and not even the usually present Golden Eagle. We did hear a Canyon Wren calling.
On Siwash Creek Road we missed Sharp-tailed Grouse again, and settled for nice looks and listens to both Type 2 (Ponderosa Pine) and Type 4 (Douglas Fir) Red Crossbills.
The rest of the day in the highlands was a bit of a struggle. We managed lots of Northern Shrikes, brief but exciting looks at an adult Goshawk, initially perched, and then actively hunting among the clearings and trees. A Northern Pygmy Owl was spotted by our ace back-car crew on Bolster Road, and great looks and photos were enjoyed by all.
Northern Pygmy Owl
Dinner at our usual Mexican place was delayed as the New England Patriots went to overtime to defeat Fred’s cousin’s (Andy Reid) Kansas City Chiefs.
On Sunday we drove across Cameron Loop Road. At the usual “flag” stop we managed Pygmy Nuthatch and more crossbills, but at best heard a White-headed Woodpecker drumming, but none of us were confident enough to list it. At the cattle pen off Cameron Lake Loop Road we again found Snow Buntings, but Ryan and Bryan spotted Gray Partridge both on the ride in and the ride out. We all got on them on the road out. While stopped to see the partridge, a flock of American Tree Sparrows flew behind us, and from there the trip down the hill was uneventful.
Next stop was at Bridgeport State Park, for Northern Pygmy Owl. Bruce found on in the usual trees, and Bryan then found another, so close we could only see if in dense branches if we looked from about 18 inches below.
The first NSWO found by Bruce. The second was too close and too obscured for a photo.
From there we looked many places for Bohemian Waxwings. A nice try by our ace spotters again found a flock of Cedar Waxwings, with a nice mix of other passerines, but no BOWA. The rest of the story is at the lead of this post.
The wrong (Cedar) Waxwing on Central Ferry Canyon Road.
Varied Thrush
Another wonderful winter trip led by our faithful mentor Ken Brown, featuring perfect weather, and the bird mentioned above.
Good birding.
February 5, 2019, 6:45 PM, University of Puget Sound, Thompson Hall, room 175, suggested $10 contribution for expenses and for room use.
Join us to welcome Sergio Seipke of Raptours, who is in the state with Bill Clark to enjoy the raptors of western Washington, hosted by Bud Anderson of Falcon Research Group, whom we all know.
Bill Clark and Sergio Seipke at the Platte River (courtesy RapTours)
Sergio will talk discuss “Five Years Hawkwatching Around the World.” He says, “I will share raptorial highlights in our tours from 2014 to 2018. This talk features a number of raptor photographs, landscape pics, anecdotes and some funny facts of the destinations Raptours has been to as a company. In other words, a collage of raptor images taken in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Nepal, Panama, South Africa, Thailand, and the USA.” Sergio will also discuss the 19 diurnal birds of prey of Madagascar briefly, where he will lead a tour next November/December.
World raptor expert and wildlife photographer Bill Clark founded Raptours in the 1990s to cater to birders who have a particular interest in birds of prey. In 2006 Bill co-led a tour with Sergio Seipke in northern Argentina. Bill then suggested to Sergio that he should offer raptor tours as a means to help fund his Raptors of South America field guide project. The idea was an appealing one: small tours would be perfect to be in the field and collect data for the book. So, Sergio started offering raptor tours himself to destinations in South America following Raptours’ guiding style and philosophy.
In February 2013 Sergio formally organized Raptours, L.L.C., in Lincoln, Nebraska, and now owns the company. Sergio says, “This resulted in a new and very exciting phase of my raptor career. Since 2005 to date I have designed, organized, and led or co-led raptor tours in eight countries in four continents.
“Raptors have inspired me to travel. I’ve watched, studied, photographed and enjoyed raptors in 13 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Panama, South Africa, Thailand, the U.K., and the U.S.A. While mother taught me to speak Spanish, raptors made me fluent in English and Portuguese. I have met many inspiring individuals in my travels ranging from superstar international raptor experts to impressively knowledgeable local naturalists. Not that I am counting, but as of March 2015 I have seen 192 species of raptors. OK, maybe I am counting them, after all.”
Saturday Dec 1 Ken Brown led a group of 20 ABCers on his annual first-weekend-of-December trip to the Skagit and Samish Flats and surrounding areas. Weather smiled on us and we had a dry, not too cold and not very windy day. We met at the Smoky Point rest stop at 7:30 AM and on leaving took the next exit going north to take a back roads route through Snohomish County to get the Fir Island. The order of cars was much out of the ordinary. Diane, Fay and the Willettes usually bring up the rear of any caravan we take on trips, but this trip Diane, Faye and Laurel rode at the front of the line in Ken’s car, and Bruce, Karen, Terry and I took the caboose position. Bruce did all the eBirding for the trip and added the equivalent of an anther expert trip leader, helping make our intimate 5-car, twenty person entourage more manageable.
Male Northern Harrier
We started the day with a bang. At a stop at a home with several feeders Ken and a few others located a White-throated Sparrow under a cedar tree, and we watched good flocks of sparrows. On the next few miles of roads large blackbird flocks gave us chances to look them over hoping for a Rusty Blackbird, and while doing this we spotted a Northern Shrike immature bird perched unusually high on a conifier tree. A Cooper’s Hawk gave perched and fly-by looks, and Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese flew around. We located at least 2 late-season Brown-headed Cowbirds in one of the blackbird flocks, and then headed for Bow Road in Stanwood.
The Cooper’s Hawk that flew by at an early stop.
This is a dead end road with large wet fields near a dyke, and we spent some time there. We found our first Rough-legged Hawks, a dark Red-tailed Hawk, ? Harlan’s (really far away and tough to be sure so we left is as just a dark morph/Harlan’s, a flock of pipits, an American Kestrel that fooled us flying in doing its best Peregrine imitation, along with eagles, swans, geese, a field full of Killdeer and a few Wilson’s Snipe.
A likely 3rd year Bald Eagle with the Osprey-like head coloration.
A surprisingly quick porcelain stop in Stanwood (it takes time for a line of 20 to make it through) and we were off to Wylie Slough. There we targeted the four rarities that have been being seen there. A disconcerting search by the Sherriff and lots of help for a 2-year old presumed drowned at the boat ramp a day earlier made access awkward, but we managed to find the Black Phoebe first by the boat ramp, then later at the other end of the slough. We failed however in an energetic search for Swamp Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow and Northern Waterthrush. We managed a good list though, an had really good looks at male and female Northern Harriers, lots of Bald Eagles, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, along with large numbers of American Robins, Cedar Waxwings and various finches that were devouring a really good crop of fruit from the trees beside the dyke trail.
March Wrens kept us busy hoping one of the birds moving in the bushes would be one of the rarities we sought at Wylie Slough.
A quick stop at Hayden Preserve added Long-billed Dowicher, Greater Yellowlegs, and Least Sandpipers (these by only a few observers) along with big numbers of dabbling ducks.
Black Phoebe
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the Skagit anmayd then the Samish Flats looking primarily for raptors. We had good numbers of RLHA, RTHA, and BAEA, along with remarkable numbers of Northern Harriers. Amazingly we did not find any Peregrine Falcons nor Merlin, leaving us with a surprising one-falcon species day (American Kestrel). We planned to end the day at the West 90 looking for Short-eared Owls, and a couple of us got a brief glimpse of one SEOW flying very far away back toward the East 90. As darkness fell, Ken hurried us over to the East 90 curve where we manage to get off the road enough to get out and look for the owls. Just as light failed us Bruce spotted one SEOW fairly distant, but everyone got looks. As we watched that owl, another appeared much closer and proceeded to fly back and forth, before flying right at us and crossing the road quite nearby. A great end to a very nice day.
Numbers:
79 Species of birds
14 species of waterfowl
6 species of shorebirds
Many thousands of Snow Geese
3 Short-eared Owls
0 Peregrine Falcons and Merlins, so 1 species of Falcon.
19 tired and happy ABCers who enjoyed another of Ken’s patented trips.
Good Birding.
Ed Pullen
Bird Migration map by Yossi Leshem of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
The ABC meeting on November 13, 2018, featured birding travels in Israel by two sets of the WIllettes. Carol Smith and Laurel Parshall traveled there in April 2017 in a small tour group. Faye McAdams Hands and Diane Yorgason-Quinn went in March 2018 in connection with the International Swift Conference and the Eilat Birding Festival.
Click to enlarge maps and photos.
Willettes’ travels in Israel
First shown was the migration map showing that the migration route through Israel is huge due to its being a bottleneck. Then a map was shown of points of interest covered by each twosome. We actually covered different areas in the north half, then many of the same points getting down to Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Interestingly, Israel is only about the area as one-third the state of Washington.
Carol Smith starts out the Israel bird show (photo/Diane Y-Q)
The difference of a month made a big difference in species seen. Spring migration continues pretty strong for March and April as different streams flow through. The Med, the Dead, and the Red sea were covered well between the two groups, as well as the huge Negev Desert in the center. Jerusalem was a high point for March this year as the Common Swifts returned right on time to places holy to all three of the monotheistic religions.
Faye IDs a Steppe Buzzard (photo/Diane Y-Q)
Carol and Laurel saw and photographed all 5 species of Sandgrouse in April, while the March twosome had only three species which were very hard to find that early. Carol and Laurel also saw the rails and crakes, while the March trip only had Coots and Moorhens.
Hoopoe, national bird of Israel (Photo/Laurel Parshall)
Palestine Sunbird (Photo/Diane Y-Q)
Raptor migration was going on over the cliffs above the Dead Sea and of course at the world-famous Eilat Mountains. The March group rubbed shoulders with teams prepping for the Champions of the Flyway, a huge international bird contest that took place soon after our trip, which raised funds for tackling illegal killing of birds in Croatia and Serbia for 2018. They choose different projects for the funds each year. Faye and Diane had the good fortune to have Jonathan Meyrav as a leader at the Eilat Birding Festival, who founded the Champions of the Flyway project, keeps the Israel Bird List, and is birding tourism director of the Israel Ornithological Center.
Carol Smith & Laurel Parshall model the Birds of Israel shirts from their April 2017 trip to Israel (photo/Diane Y-Q)
The iconic birds for all were the Hoopoe (national bird of Israel), four species of Swifts, Wryneck, Tristram’s Starling, White-spectacled Bulbul, Griffon Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Black and White Storks, and lots of different Buzzards and Eagles!
Diane Yorgason-Quinn and Faye McAdams Hands model their Swift Conference shirts & regalia from March 2018 (photo/Adam Trent)
10-23-18 – Opening slide. Thank goodness it wasn’t a quiz!
On October 23, 2018, ABC’ers delved deep into Pelagic birding with presentations by Ed Pullen and Ryan Wiese, as well as additional information by Bruce LaBar and Art Wang.
Ed Pullen starts his slides
Ken Brown opened the meeting by recapping upcoming ABC events, and then Clarice Clark presented information on an upcoming guided tour of SE Arizona for Tahoma Audubon this coming spring featuring guide Chris Chappell, formerly of Pierce County. There were only one or two spots left open by the end of the evening! For more info on those spots, contact Clarice or Jerry Broadus at jbroadus@seanet.com.
Ryan Wiese gets into his slide presentation
All pelagic bird species occurring off the coast of Washington were discussed in depth including likelihood of seeing, world populations and scarcity, life histories, etc. The slides were extremely informative and are now available to ABC’ers here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CkekblylR_ufUXRB-FS-DCNJgRiXBOs2/view
Bruce LaBar discusses the underwing patterns of Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters
Pelagic trips discussed included Westport, Monterey Bay, Maine, Cape Hatteras, and Hawaii. The concepts of going onboard in shorts and flip-flops (Cape Hatteras) or in swimsuits and then jumping in the water to swim ashore (Hawaii) were happily contemplated!
Art Wang, wearing his Stormy Petrel Hatteras shirt. discusses various pelagic trips
Chumming was discussed. Bruce, a longtime spotter for Westport Seabirds, explained that one reason chumming didn’t happen on their trips until the furthest point was reached was to get accurate counts of the birds. Westport Seabirds has the best data available for this reason. Other trips chum all the way out and have a parade of the same birds following the boat the entire ride. It was revealed that Monterey Bay has banned chumming altogether with the exception of Debi Shearwater’s trips, which should end soon with her retirement. The alternative to chumming is to get chummy with fishing boats.
Fine points were discussed, such as the recent split of Xantus Murrelet into Scripps and Guadelupe.
Some highlights included the fact that Rhino Auklets are OUR birds with approximately 90% of the lower 48 population breeding in Washington waters. Also, Short-tailed Shearwaters, rare as they might seem here, are actually the most populous shearwater species on the planet! Red Phalaropes like to feed in the spume of whales! And yes, those South Polar Skuas really are the thugs you thought, guilty of all possible crimes and some even unimaginable.
Red Phalarope
The very interested group asked excellent questions and kept the meeting going until we got kicked out and all the cookies were gone (thanks, Faye)!
Maine pelagic birders reunited! Presenter Ed Pullen flanked by Carol, Diane, and Faye, wearing Atlantic Puffin shirts
