SPRING 2018 MOUNTAIN QUAIL OUTINGS, March 31 & April 1

Looks like we’ll have to keep doing these, as they fail to produce those quail about half the time, and we’re getting a backlog of people who have tried and failed.

On our first dawn visit to Mary Hrudkaj’s house on the Tahuya peninsula on March 31st, the first of our two cars flushed a couple of quail as we drove up to her house. Car #2 didn’t even get that brief look. We did see lots of other good stuff at Mary’s, but not as much as we’d hoped due to a sweep of the area by a resident Sharp-shinned Hawk, one who had just finished off a quail a couple of days earlier. She had her house set up as a little theater again with chairs facing the picture window out to the feeding area that the Quail frequent.

Teri, Carolyn, Wayne, Margie, and in foreground Mike waiting for quail (not pictured – Art)

When we finally gave up, we traversed several known areas for quail on the way down her mountain, and 3 were seen on the side of the road running into the undergrowth. Again car #2 didn’t even get that poor look.

The Band-tails came in on Sunday, bolder than Saturday

Mourning Dove chowing down at Mary’s (photo/Richard Smethurst)

Steller’s Jay cracks a hard nut (photo/Richard Smethurst)

On our second visit to Mary’s the very next day (set up to accommodate a long wait list), we got there a little earlier, but cooler weather and a sharp breeze seemed to keep the quail in their dens. No sightings, either at Mary’s or on the road, but Band-tailed Pigeons, Mourning Doves, Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrows, Towhees, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet trying to convince us it was a vireo, both hummingbirds, Steller’s Jays, and a FOY (at least for me) Turkey Vulture, kept the time from being tedious.

Mary’s indoor cat enjoying the company

Douglas Squirrel at the bird feeder

One of Mary’s indoor cats and two cheeky Douglas squirrels kept the entertainment level pretty high.

Our hostess Mary with field trip leaders Diane and Faye, showing our little gift (Photo/Art Wang)

Although this is a good time of year to catch these quail due to setting up breeding territories and calling back and forth, we may try again in the last summer when their numbers are swollen by young. Stay tuned to ABC for more info as that approaches.

NEW ZEALAND AND KIWIS WITH MALCOLM WILEY – MARCH 21, 2018

About 15 ABCers, plus a spouse and some of Malcolm’s co-workers (including his boss) met on March 21, 2018, 6:45 PM, at the University of Puget Sound – Thompson Hall, to hear about New Zealand, conservation efforts and Kiwis!

Map of New Zealand showing sites of restoration work

Malcolm gave us a wonderful presentation about his 12 years working as a biodiversity ranger for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. He studied plant ecology at college, but in New Zealand most conservation work is focused on bird species so he started as a volunteer and ended up leading a kiwi monitoring project for Great Spotted Kiwi in a mountain valley in the South Island of New Zealand. By the way, chasing Kiwis is hard! They have to use specially trained dogs to help out on the scrubby steep mountain sides that are the right habitat for Great Spotted Kiwi.

Restoration work on the many islands of New Zealand

He also spent some time letting us know about several other bird species that he did conservation work with. His slides, audio and video clips were great. We even got to see some of the introduced predators caught on video. The head/bill butting that an adult male Kiwi gave to a stoat (weasel family), to defend the Kiwi nest, was worth cheering about.

He gave us the overview and some really good information about New Zealand’s DOC, the responsible agency for conservation efforts in the 600 islands that make up New Zealand, not just the North and South Islands that the world is most familiar with. He was involved in invasive species control projects including a couple of island rat eradication projects trying to create safe havens for bird species, including a park in the North Island that is used as a pre-release/readying for living in the wild zone for Kiwis. This place also brings in the community to observe and feel a part of the efforts to bring back and hold onto the unique avian diversity of New Zealand.

He also gave us the timeline for the extinction and percentages of the avifauna that has been lost due to man’s arrivals in the islands, both the Maori and Europeans. The bright notes are some of the conservation successes and one or two bird species that were thought to be gone, but small populations have recently been refound!

Malcolm Wiley explains his work with Kiwis in New Zealand

He has lent a couple of books to ABCers, one on the Extinct Species of New Zealand and the other about the geology/geography of the archipelago and sub-antartic islands. Shelley Parker has the second book as she and her husband are planning a trip for January 2019. I have the other and have already read through it. Because Malcolm’s mother-in-law works at the health department, as do I, please contact me for a chance to read these books and return them as well. You can use my gmail e-ddress (knasnan@gmail.com) to text for checking out and returning them during my work week in Tacoma as the health department is located on the corner of 37th and Pacific Ave, fairly central for Pierce County.

Reported by Laurel Parshall

REPORT: Our 2-hour (noon to 2 PM, March 3, 2018) cruise of Hood Canal aboard the Lady Alderbrook was unbelievably great! Partners Tahoma Audubon and Black Hills Audubon helped put together an incredible experience. Faye McAdams Hands coordinated with Bonnie of Black Hills and arranged some beautiful weather. In fact, this may have been the first good weather day we’ve had this year since our January 1 cruise of the Sound.

Inside the Lady Alderbrook

On board, we were fortunate to have professional pelagic spotters, Bruce LaBar and Cara Borre, as well as a bunch of other accomplished birders and photographers among this sold-out birders’ event. It was also nice to meet at the beautiful Alderbrook resort and enjoy that ambience.

Pat, Shelley and Petrea hang back as spotters Bruce and Cara talk strategy

We sailed away under the eyes on the tall ship, Pleiades, which was taking pictures of the Lady Alderbrook for advertising purposes, so we’ll probably all be famous soon.

See any Surf Scoters?

First up, we came upon 350+ Western Grebes. For those of us who have been mourning the missing Grebes in Puget Sound, it was such a relief to see them here and again later in the cruise. To make it a sport, Bruce had us all concentrate to find a Clark’s Grebe among them, and we were successful! John Riegsecker was able to get a photograph to prove it. After that we ran into big bunches of Surf Scoters, as well as several sizable flocks of White-winged Scoters, another bird we’ve been missing in the Sound in recent years.

A joy to see was a baker’s dozen of Trumpeter Swans, rather unexpected, but we saw them on the beach, then in the air, then landing in the water, getting every possible angle! Again, John’s photo showed them to be Trumpeters and solved that vexing problem of ID from a distance. Then, as if that were not enough, the spotters spotted a potential Long-tailed Duck. It was too far away for many of us to ID, but again John’s steady arm on that camera proved it! When we were all looking for the Long-tail, at one point Bruce said, “Find the red pole and look underneath that.” Turns out he didn’t mean a Redpoll…

Trumpeters circling us!

A couple of Harbor Seals filled in our marine mammal requirement, and many Larus gulls were about. Red-necked Grebes, Greater Scaup, both Goldeneyes, and a fair number of Common and Red-throated Loons helped fill the waters on this beautiful sunny day framed by snowy mountains.

Snow over the Hood Canal Marina, almost back to Alderwood

We finished up as a happy group, and Adam took a group picture as we were disembarking, especially to send to Kay Pullen, who helped put this event together, but was unable to attend due to illness.

Here we are, landing

Thanks to Faye, Bonnie, Bruce, Cara, and to Ken for eBirding.

Photographers! Please addend this report with links when you have photos posted! In the meantime, some of John Riegsecker’s photos are included on the eBird page: https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S43380333. Some of Diane’s & Heather Roskelley’s photos are now on FLICKR at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76552838@N03/albums/72157693330076794

April 24, 2018, 6:45 PM – University of Puget Sound – Thompson Hall room 175, $10. DAVE SLAGER!

Dave Slager

Prior to arriving at UW, Dave co-edited the Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Ohio book, served on the Michigan Bird Records Committee, and used radiotransmitters to study the movements of Northern Waterthrush and Yellow-rumped Warblers at migratory stopover sites in Wisconsin. Outside of the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, Dave has also studied Cerulean Warbler ecology in Colombia and mimicry in the kiskadee-like flycatchers in Panama.

You can read more about his research at https://slager.github.io/ and view some of his older photos on his Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/daveslager/5527875231/.

It sounds like we NEED to know Dave!!  We’re very happy he’s agreed to come to ABC on April 24th!

On February 22, 2018, Ken Brown challenged ABC members to the game of Stump The Experts, and it was as funny and fun as the WOS version that inspired it.

Maggie Tieger, on right, explains her reasoning.

As game administrators, Ken and Ed Pullen, took potshots from the contestants. Those “expert” contestants consisted of the entire crew, divided into two sides, led by Ryan Wiese and Diane Yorgason-Quinn. Ken had a bunch of slides of birds that were not obvious as to identification and offered each slide to one side or the other, and Ed ran the projector, timed each side, and kept the score. Many of the photos were by Ken and Heather Voboril and a few others in the club. Some were ancient history and were very hard to decipher (Rustic Bunting — really??).

We had deep discussion on the recent controversy over a photo from Seattle that some thought was a Broad-winged Hawk and some thought was a Cooper’s. We had a couple of Coops in this contest, too.  Some of us still think that Flycatcher was a Hammond’s, not a Pacific-slope! Of course we didn’t have the opportunity to see what it did with its tail or hear its call.  One interesting aspect of the contest was that the perceived real experts (B.L., M.R., for example) were as stumped as the rest of us on a bunch of these!

One of Ken’s washed-out slides!

At the end, it appeared that Ryan’s side had won, although Diane’s side had pulled up pretty close. A final score was not actually mentioned, as everyone was deep into discussion of the finer points when our time was up. As we broke up, a slide showing a dead Carolina Parakeet as a woman’s hat decoration brought up back to the reality that that species went extinct 100 years ago yesterday.

Why are these people smiling?

Can we have trophies next year, Ken? First and second place?  Or perhaps Booby prizes (Blue-footed and Red-footed!).

After a few failed attempts yesterday I finally recorded a bird song on an iPhone app called “RODE rec” and was able to post it onto an eBird list. Seems simple but it took me enough struggle to post step by step directions here. First is just the app. RODE rec was chosen because of online reviews suggesting that it is a reasonably good free app to record wave files. You can record using the phone recorder, but you get a less usable type file.

On opening the RODE rec app you will need to go through a registration process, but on future openings you’ll see something like this:

To make a new recording just click on the + icon at the bottom. Then you’ll see a screen like this:

All you need to do to record is tap the big red “Record” button, then when you are done tap on the green “Stop” button.

This much is pretty simple. I had difficult getting the recording to play. The trick is to swipe the gray band on the bottom all the way back to the left so that it resets to the beginning. After recording the gray band is all the way to the right, i.e. finished. See this screen shot below of the “finished” recording:

Compare to this one after swiping the gray band back to the far left:

Next I just emailed the recording to myself. To do this select the recording you want to send, and tap the “Upload arrow” on the upper right screen. Choose email, send the file to your self.

Then you move the recording from your email to a location you can drop and drag it to the “media” section on eBird (just like dropping and dragging or selecting a photo). One thing to note is that unlike a photo which is immediately visible on your eBird list, the audio file takes a while to be processed. My first one was able to be listened to on eBird by the next day.
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S42754617

I believe using a microphone or parabola will give a better recording, but this one with just my phone was passable and I’m pretty happy with it. Good luck. Ed

I knew that the blue color of most birds is not a pigment but rather due to feather structure, and that the iridescence of hummingbird gorgets and some other iridescent bird colors is also non-pigment related, but just how this works was hard to wrap my brain around. I just stumbled onto a nice, short article on the Cornell site that reviews these different ways birds have color. Enjoy:

How Birds Make Colorful Feathers

Last week the NY Times did a book review of several books about various types and variants of birding obsessions. Noah’s was one of the 3 books discussed. Anyone interested can see the review here:

Birding Without Borders NY Times Book Review

YOU’RE INVITED!

STUMP THE EXPERTS!  WHO’S AN ADVANCED BIRDER?

Feb 22, 2018, 6:45 PM, UPlace Library: Join Ken Brown as we try to figure out some unusual bird photodocumentation. Some of the slides truly need someone to identify them, some Ken knows but is wondering whether WE know, and some are just tricks from “bad” photos.

Trying to ID birds in the fog

Ken says, “The time has come for the battle of the ages.  We will divide into teams and have some fun putting our bird identification skills to the test.  I will attempt to find some easy-to-hard bird slides in order to stump you. I have not come up with an idea to fuel the competition, so suggestions are welcome.  This should be a hoot.  WOS  calls it ‘Stump the Experts,’, but obviously we won’t go there.”

The real meaning is to try to zero in on field marks you might not ordinarily notice because you use the easier ones, which might be missing in these photos and also in the field.

Ken Brown showing leadership skills

Are there prizes? Ask Ken.

BIG YEAR PARTY!

Refreshment table on left with Peter talking on right.

Click photos to enlarge.

ABC held our Big Yearly party on Jan 17th, and we had goodies galore, photos galore, and some very interesting Big Year reports. Those presenting were Blair Bernson, Brian Pendleton, Mike Charest, Heather Voboril, Ken Brown, Will Brooks, Peter Wimberger, Bruce LaBar, Brian Hanson, and Ed Pullen. Will Brooks was touted as the guy to beat in 2018, and it was great to see a young birder step up to the competition.

Some of the crowd

Blair Bernson reports his big year (while Chazz knits!)

Brian Pendleton gives his report while Mike Charest (L) looks on and Ryan Wiese handles the photos

Mike’s fond slide of the Brownsville dump

Many of us submitted our 5 best (or favorite) photos from 2017, including some who were unable to attend. Oohs, aahs, guffahs, and applause accompanied these. We were well entertained! It was noted that at least four people submitted photos of the Gyr at JBLM that was found by our own Donna La Casse!

Heather Voboril with one of her super slides

Reports by Bruce LaBar, Will Brooks, and Ed Pullen

Peter Wimberger gives his Big Year report

Happy birders

Refreshments were catered by Karen Gillis and Vera Cragin, and they were ample and delicious! Thanks! The Pullens are downsizing, and they found good homes for many of their bird books at a great price to us (free!).

ABA Bird of the Year shirts worn by Diane, Faye, Art, Laurel

What a fun way to spend a rainy evening! Let’s do it again next year!