When I travel to an area where I expect to see birds I don’t know and to study them. It has the advantage over just studying a field guide book to the birds of the area of showing you the birds you are really likely to see, in order of likelihood. Check it out.
Hopefully you find this helpful.
Ed
Will Brooks talks about his Washington State big year record along with his good friend Jason Vassallo who completed the 9th highest Lower-48 big year in 2021. Fun stories and a chance to live vicariously through their birding.
Enjoy.
The Bird Banter Podcast #121 with Will Brooks and Jason Vassallo Additional Information
Ed
Ken really loves taking the club, previously the class, on our annual freezathon to North Central Washington. For the second straight year Covid made us reluctant to get a big group together for the trip, but Ken, Bruce, Jacob Miller and I managed a 4-day trip last over the MLK weekend (Thursday – Sunday actually) and as usual it was great. Read all about it on the Bird Banter site under Ed’s Birding Notes here.
Here are a couple of photos to tempt you. Snow cover was really heavy, and weather great except for some patchy fog at times.
Good birding. Ed
October 17, 2021 – CROWS!!!
by Diane Yorgason-Quinn
Adam and I did our yearly Halloween trek to the famous crow roost at Bothell. From our vantage point atop the North Parking garage, we could look down into the protected wetland where so many birds of all kinds spend the night. Arriving 45 minutes before sunset, we saw only one crow at first and wondered if this phenomenon had moved on. But soon, here they came! Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands! The noise increased and drowned out the I-405 traffic noise!
A special treat was that the U had left the game lights on the playing field just south of where we stood, and the crows showed up to play! It was amazing how many crows were playing there, but when the lights went off, the crows slowly dissipated into the swamp to the east.
As was their habit, about 15 to 20 minutes after sunset, the crows suddenly hushed all at once. We could still see a few, but they were no longer moving around, and they certainly did not vocalize. We had tried to count them, but when you’re in the eye of the hurricane, you are not in a position to measure it. Nevertheless, we entered 15,000 into eBird, and eBird didn’t even flinch!
Show over. We thought. As we turned to the car getting ready to leave, Adam said what’s that? It was quite dark by then, but there was no mistaking a large flock of birds circling the wetland. They were not crows, neither by their voices or their formation. We watched as they were joined by several other large groups, making the entire group probably around 5000. Photos were hardly possible, though I did try! And a little movie to hear their voices. Later we decided they had to have been Cackling Geese! What a great encore to the Crow Show!
To see more of our photos and videos, go to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76552838@N03/albums/72157720070686191
Every wonder how Bushtits make their cute hanging nests? How many eggs to Sprague’s Pipits Lay. (scroll to the bottom of this post for screen shots) Information like this is easy to find in Birds of the World, an online subscription resource from Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Have a bird question. The answer is likely there. I use it all the time. Now WOS members will have access to this subscription-only resource as a benefit of membership- no added cost!
Washington Ornithological Society has teamed with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology to add a terrific new membership benefit. WOS members will be automatically be granted access to the Birds of the World resource. For those of you who are not familiar with this it is a collection of extremely detailed and complete collections of information about every species of bird in the world! It used to be called Birds of North America, but a couple of years ago it expanded to cover the whole world. When I have a question about a bird species it’s my go-to resource. I’ve been a subscriber for years, though at $6/month it has been a bit pricey, I’ve considered it my donation to the cause. Now, for your $25.year WOS membership you get access to BOW included. DO THE MATH! It’s a great value. Maybe BOW is not worth$6./ month to you, but is WOS membership including BOW access worth about $2./ month? A no-brainer. Spread the word. Join WOS and get this fabulous resource as a membership benefit.
This came about as the WOS board deliberated on ways to add value to membership. With the pandemic, less in-person meetings, field trips on hold. This was suggested, the board leadership looked at the cost and it seemed like a great value. WOS has agreed to pay a fee for every WOS member to have this benefit. Every member will have the benefit (unless you intentionally opt out- which simply directs WOS not to share your membership information with the Cornell Lab and means that you will not have this benefit, but does not reduce the cost to WOS) as it is at a price to WOS that must include every member.
The hope of the board it that adding this membership at a bargain price to WOS, will give added value to current members by sharing the definitive ornithologic species monographs to members and thereby increasing our individual and collective birding knowledge, as well as potentially increase membership to others who may want this discounted BOW access.
Members as of Oct 1, 2021 will get access. This will be updated quarterly.
You can join WOS at the WOS Membership page by clicking on this link.
Share this info with your birding and science loving friends, just join WOS and get this member benefit youself.
Thanks for reading, now just Do It!
On Sunday August 8th we met Captain Matt Stolmeier at the dock of Outer Island Excursions Blackfish Tours to head out to Smith Island. There has been a Horned Puffin seen in that area off and on for this summer, and really the last 3 summers. For most of the trip participants this would have been a lifer, or WA first species. The weather was perfect with sunshine, flat seas, and we had a great trip. No Horned Puffin was located, but lots more birds and scenery was there as consolation prizes.
Smith Island was alive with birds. The Bull Kelp beds looked massive and healthy, and a number of “Bait Balls” of birds were enjoyed.
There were lots of other alcids.
Skipper Matt gave us extra time to explore the Williamson’s Rocks on the trip back into port, with great looks at various birds with red hard parts.
Overall a great way to get together outdoors and have fun birding.
Hope is for lots more ABC trips if we the pandemic situation allows.
Good birding.
ABC had a group trip, finally. With all participants immunized and able to get away on a short-notice smaller-than-usual-group trip, 8 ABCers headed for the North East corner of the state on Tuesday June 8th. Ken put the trip together with my encouragement and the group met at the usual Travelers Rest Stop at Snoqualmie Pass at 7:30 to get out birding and try for the NE corner specialties plus a few more.
The big change in this trip was the addition of Jacob Miller, a young Mason County birder that Ken has been encouraging. He managed to break away from his family farm, Skykomish Valley Farms, and his enthusiasm as well as talented eyes and ears added lots to the trip. On the way across I-90 east we made a stop at the Ginkgo State Park Backcountry Trail spot to see the Black-throated Sparrow that had been sighted there the day prior. It was singing from prominent perches on the east side of the entry road, across from where it had been seen some years ago. This was lifer #1 for Jacob and some others, and a FOY for all but me, as the Pierce County second record bird on May 14 was a county first and FOY for me. Rock wrens were numerous there too and singing loudly.
From here we spent much of the morning around Sprague Lake, in both Lincoln and Adams counties, after a quick stop at Peninsula Park at Moses Lake for Clark’s Grebe with several Forester’s Terns as an unexpected bonus and lifers #2 and #3 for Jacob. At the Lincoln County end of Sprague Lake we added Black Tern (#4) and Gray Catbird (#5) as well as Canvasback and a good variety of ducks and passerines including many Eastern Kingbirds (#6)
On the Adams County end by the boat ramp two Black-crowned Night Herons flew past (#7) and we joked that we were hitting a rut, with between 43-47 species at every stop. We made a Grasshopper Sparrow (#8) stop in grassy fields along SR -231 on the way out of Sprague, adding Vesper Sparrows along with Swainson’s Hawks there too.
Stops at Reardon Pond added our first of many Bank Swallows, and at Hafer Road in Steven’s County we managed to find a pair of Clay-colored Sparrows (#9) along with the Dusky Flycatchers (#10) before heading to dinner in Colville at a Mexican place with decent food but incredibly slow service. After a 2-hjour dinner stop we got to Cottonwood Campground just after sunset, pitching tents in the last light. Singing Veery (#11) and drumming Ruffed Grouse were nice bedtime additions.
It drizzled much of the night, making for damp camping gear for the rest of the trip, but the morning birding made up for it, with a mother Ruffed Grouse keeping a close eye on us as her young hid in the roadside brush on the campground driveway. Red-eyed Vireo and American Redstart (#12-13) were easily seen in camp, as well as more calling and singing Veery, and a White-breasted Nuthatch (#14). At the HQ we got our first looks at Calliope (#15) and Black-chinned Hummingbirds (#16) and then we headed around the auto loop at Pend Oreille NWR. It was not that birdy but Nashville Warbler (#17) was found on Bear Creek Road, and at lunch at the McDowell Lake Trailhead a soaring Northern Goshawk (#18) entertained and amazed all of us while Jacob had the presence of mind to carefully look at a woodpecker that we all saw fly in front of us but didn’t look away from the Goshawk, getting White-headed Woodpecker (#19) as a “Jacob only” bird of the trip. On a hike to the lake a Golden Eagle was another trip highlight.
After leaving the NWR we birded Amazon Marsh. It was difficult, but finally we managed to get onto a singing Northern Waterthrush (#20) along with American Redstart and several more Gray Catbirds.
At Aladin Road not much was new, and we headed for Big Meadow Campground to pitch camp. It was disappointing there that every Alder tree in the usual camping spot had been cut down, and on the hike many trees required maneuvering over, under or around making the 2 ½ mile hike seem especially long. Also zero of either species of 3-toed woodpeckers disappointed. Singing Common loons and Wilson’s snipe calling and winnowing kept us entertained though.
This night was colder to camp out, but everyone survived, and after a hike alongside the lake without Three-toed or Black-backed Woodpeckers, we headed to our boreal high elevation stop of the trip with high hopes.
Bunchgrass Meadow was a new place for most of us on the trip. It is at high elevation, up a 10-mile road NF 1935 Sullivan lake Road near Ione, WA. Here is a link to the eBird list we had from there where you can also access the details of the eBird hotspot. Here we had big flocks of White-winged Crossbills, many Red Crossbills, at least 3 Boreal Chickadees, and a great experience of seeing a new beautiful place.
After this we stopped briefly at Noisy Creek Campground near Sullivan Lake and worked our way to the hotel of the trip, a really nice place called the Ione Riverview Motel. It is right on the Pend Oreille River, has good rooms and beds, a deck right by the river, and was great. A warm dry bed was just the thing after 2 nights camping.
The next morning we headed for maybe our most anticipated stop of the trip, Calispel Lake, where my guests on Episode #100, Scott and Sierra Downes had 90 species on a recent loop. We were hoping to do that well, and worked the area thoroughly, taking 7 ½ hours to complete the loop, taking our time, looking for every bird, and finishing with a crazy 104 species as a group. I think I saw 102 of these, missing two swift species, Black seen only by Jacob, and Vaux seen by several of us. Highlights were close up Northern Waterthrush at a lunch stop by a bridge, FOY Least Flycatcher near the Jct. of Middle-fork Road, and good numbers of Bobolinks in a couple of wet fields. A family of Say’s Phoebes, 10 species of warblers (really great for WA) and a slow paced day made for great birding.
Our last night of camping was at the Kettle Falls Campground, where we battled some high winds to set up camp before the wind died back at dusk, and outboard motors very early the next morning as fishermen took to Lake Roosevelt. Highlights here were found by Jacob after the rest of us called it a night. Lark Sparrow and another at least two Least Flycatchers were on the peninsula behind the marina, and we got back out to see them the next morning. Pygmy Nuthatches were in a snag right in camp, and we headed for home with more birding to do on Saturday.
The way home was all about finding a few lifers for Jacob (and great looks at great birds for the rest of us) Ferruginous Hawks were found in two places, at mile post 82 on State Road 28 is a dilapidated windmill with a nest on the platform. Three chicks and a soaring adult Ferruginous Hawk gave great looks. Another two adults were seen later at Wilson Creek.
Road W near Krupp yielded Sagebrush Sparrow and Brewer’s Sparrows, Sage Thrasher, and Vesper Sparrow. Lunch in Krupp preceded Wilson Creek where a Barn Owl was found by Ken in the canyon wall, the pair of FEHA worked the fields, and we all headed for home satisfied and happy, our state/life/year lists enhanced and feeling really good.
On the way home I spotted a Great Egret in a field off I-90 near Ellensburg, and we all got back to my place to head for home by about 6:30PM.
A great trip! Thanks to all participants and especially to Ken.
Story and photographs by Max Warner, May 17, 2021
Chambers Bay area Ospreys have arrived from migration on April first every year for quite some time and have usually reclaimed existing territories and nests. But this year, a non-migratory female Canada Goose had earlier taken possession of a well-established pole nest near the Chambers Bay Dam and refused to give it up to a returning Osprey Pair. This behavior by geese had been noted in the area sporadically before.
After a day or two, the Ospreys decided to build a new nest nearby, right on top of a utility pole with many energized wires attached, and went at it vigorously. This being a hazard both to birds and potentially to power transmission, Tacoma Power and the Department of Fish and Wildlife were notified. A day or two later the new Osprey nest was removed, apparently with a permit allowing this because of safety concerns. Anti-nesting devices were placed on the pole and a nearby one.
But the Goose remained on the original nest and indeed was plucking breast down and lining the nest with it. However, in the next two or three days she and her pile of down were removed and the Ospreys, who had been hanging around stubbornly, reclaimed their home and have proudly remained on it ever since.
Final Score Ospreys 1, Goose-0. (“Goose egg” ?)
Unable to do our Big Year celebration this winter, we still recognize our big hitters!
Congratulations to our people who broke into the TOP 10 (via eBird) in 2020:
PIERCE COUNTY TOP 10
Heather Ballash (235)
Marcus Roening (234)
Bruce LaBar (229)
Ed Pullen (222)
Will Brooks (220)
Peter Wimberger (214)
Wayne Sladek (214)
Margie Sladek (189)
Charlie Wright (185)
PIERCE COUNTY HONORABLE MENTIONS: Art Wang, Shep Thorp, Kathryn Cooper, Shelley Parker, Heather Voboril, Bryan Hansen, Scott Saunders.
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MASON COUNTY TOP 10
Ken Brown (185)
Jacob Miller (170)
John Riegsecker (165)
Faye McAdams Hands (150)
Ed Pullen (150)
Bill Tweit (138)
MASON COUNTY HONORABLE MENTIONS: Jon Anderson, Diane Yorgason-Quinn, Donna La Casse, Lisa Pedersen, Mark Biser, Laurel Parshall, Kirsten Tucker
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KITSAP COUNTY TOP 10
Brad Waggoner (226)
Ken Brown (200)
KITSAP COUNTY HONORABLE MENTIONS: Ed Pullen, Chazz Hesselein, Heather Voboril, John Riegsecker
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THURSTON COUNTY TOP 10
John Anderson (179)
Tom Schooley (173)
Bill Tweit (172)
THURSTON COUNTY HONORABLE MENTION: Shep Thorp
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LEWIS COUNTY TOP 10
Dalton Spencer (163)
Rachel Hudson (158)
Dave Hayden (123)
Will Brooks (110)
LEWIS COUNTY HONORABLE MENTION: Whittier Johnson
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KING COUNTY TOP 10
Anonymous (262)
Dave Slager (231)
Ryan Merrill (230)
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STATE OF WASHINGTON TOP 10
Shep Thorp (351)
Blair Bernsen (330)
Bruce LaBar (319)
WASHINGTON HONORABLE MENTIONS: Ryan Merrill, Will Brooks, Brian Pendleton, Ed Pullen, Teri Martine
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CONGRATULATIONS! See you for next year’s Big Year Party!
I learned yesterday that our ABCBirding website has been broken, and today I finally managed to get it back up. Hope soon we can be back to meetings and field trips. Here are some photos to tide you over.
Good birding.
Ed