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.
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.
Ed Pullen
Here is a link to a collation of the ABC birding birders submissions for their best 5 photos of 2018. Link to Photos. Click here.
Plus some late arrivals here:
From Maggie Tieger:
From Joe Tieger:
And from Laurel Parshall:
From John Reigsecker
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.
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.