If any ABCers are planning to go birding, and are interested or willing to have others join you, leave info in the comments below. Please leave instructions as to how you want interested persons to respond. You can just have them leave a reply to your comment, contact you off-line, or use your imagination. This is something new so let’s see how it works out. Leave feedback in the comments also.
If any ABCers are planning to go birding, and are interested or willing to have others join you, leave info in the comments below. Please leave instructions as to how you want interested persons to respond. You can just have them leave a reply to your comment, contact you off-line, or use your imagination. This is something new so let’s see how it works out. Leave feedback in the comments also.
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.
Link to Apple Podcasts to hear or download the episode.
If you don’t use Apple Podcasts you can listen here on Podbean.
Trip leader Dalton Spencer stops for lunch
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!
The Kingfisher Kids (Photo/Rachel Hudson)
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.
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!
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.”
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!
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.
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.
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!
IMPORTANT LINKS!!
The fund-raising shirt:
https://www.bonfire.com/birds-not-rats-1/?fbclid=lwAR1ihorlLaQMdlTTeUiAZQqZHq3gKy6V4MUTxg-GN8BVcM0GCjTrNBmUlxl
The feral cat problem (and also see ABC’s previous summer read, Cat Wars, by Smithsonian ornithologist Peter Marra):
https://www.outsideonline.com/2127956/hawaiis-crazy-war-over-zombie-cats
What researchers have to contend with in the shorebird nesting sites:
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/summer-2018/one-scientists-valiant-mission-save-two-hawaiis
RAT TRAPS THAT WORK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedgyTsk-uw
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.
Thanks.
Ed Pullen
Thursday May 23rd at the U.P. Library our mentor Ken Brown presented the program: What’s in a Name: A History of Bird Nomenclature and Common Names.
The program was really in three parts. Initially Ken gave the story of Carl Linnaeus, 1707-1778, a botanist by training, so bored with school that he failed one college before being rescued from failing again when his lecturers realized he knew more than they did and made him a lecturer. He went on to publish the first book on a nomenclature system for all things, plants, animals and minerals. It appears that he was not lacking in confidence, as near the end of his life he wrote a passage Ken quoted telling everyone how great his work was and how no one else’s work could compare.
Ken then outlined how the system evolved into its current system of Domainà Kingdom à Phylum à Class à Order à Family à (subfamily) à Genus à Species à (subspecies).
In the second segment Ken gave biographical narratives of Carl Linnaeus and then three of the top early North American ornithologic greats.
Linnaeus was discussed above.
First the father of North American Ornithology Alexander Wilson, 1766- 1813, a political refugee from Scotland where he was imprisoned after writing sartirical support for striking miners, and escaped to the U.S. Here as a teacher and spare-time ornighologist he studied the birds of eastern North America and wrote a 9-volume American Ornighology series (7 published before his death) that became the sentinel work in American Ornithology and established him as the father of North American Ornithology.
Next Ken talked about “J.J. (a.k.a. John James Audubon) born Jean Rabin, the bastard son of Lt. John Audubon, a British lieutenant and privateer, probably mothered by a chambermaid-mistress Jeanne Rabine who died shortly after his birth. Ken outlines some of the colorful aspects of J.J.’s life including bankruptcy, grave robbing and of course his pioneering bird art. Ken suggested that J.J. was a pioneering artist and not as important as an ornithologist.
Next Elliott Coues, 1842-1899, was one of Ken’s favorites, an outspoken (to it gently) giant in N.A ornithology. Coues was an Army Medical Officer, and top ornithologist who was instrumental in introducing the trinomial nomenclature (including subspecies name) of birds, and wrote a key to North American Birds. He also wrote a treatise on whether swallows migrated or hibernated under lake ice, incredible to comprehend given todays understanding, but a controversial topic of the time). Ken talked about his work in founding the American Ornithologic Union, and his discovery of a new warbler species that after he sent a specimen to J.J. was named after his apparently beloved 18 year old sister Grace, hence Grace’s Warbler.
After a break Ken took questions about common bird names, looking up the answers in an old book he inherited as a part of the bird library of Bob and Georgia Ramsey, Ken’s mentors in birding and icons in the local birding community.
A good time was had by all. Ken made a call to all members to help us get back to our roots by developing programs on birding related topics to help us all become stronger birders, and increase our own birding and ornithologic backgrounds. Who’s up next?
Stay tuned for a You Tube version of Ken’s talk with audio over the power point slides for anyone who wants a review, or missed the talk.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Willettes representing WOS and Young Birders Fund
Will Brooks presents to ABC
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.