Bird Banter

In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #25 with Dr. John Fitchen we talk about the simlarities in our early lives, and then get into John's birding story. He started later than some birders, but when he got going, he hit is hard.  Attu, a record breaking county big year, and now a memoir.  Enjoy. 

You can buy Dr. Fitchen's book Life through the lens of a Doctor-Birder: A Memoir on Amazon, or on you can get a 10% discount at this link using the code "banter": https://aerbook.com/store/fitchen

We talked a bit about the role of military physicians in early American ornithology, and you can read about this online at 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44442753?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Be sure to check out the blog post enhancing this episode at http://birdbanter.com/index.php/blog 

Until next time.  Good birding. Good day!

On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #24 Ed and Nick talk about Nick's recent Alaska trip, his 2019 "self-found" or "no chase" Connecticut big year where he is doing a big year where he does not chase birds found by others, rather looks for his own bird sightings.  We also talk about his role in leading trips for the Connecticut Audubon, including an upcoming trip to sub-Saharan Africa, using NEXRAD to monitor migration, and of course his birding story.  

Nick has a blog, Shorebirder.com  https://www.shorebirder.com/

Here is a link to a resource for pelagic trips out of Cape Cod.  https://www.brooklinebirdclub.org/pelagic-trips-2/

Here is a link to the eBird primer on using radar to follow migration.  https://ebird.org/news/radar

Here is the site Nick recommends for access to radar data  http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/

    -Nick suggests the following settings.

On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #23 my guest is Ann Nightingale, a Victoria B.C. birder who has become the face of Victoria birding, is a great birding ambasador, a very good birder, and a great guest on the podcast.  Be sure to hear about her trans-Pacific repositioning cruise, her work at the Rocky Point Bird Observatory as a bird bander a

nd activist, and find out the origin of her enviably great name. 

Here are links to some of the things we talk about in the episode:

Rocky Point Bird Observatory

http://rpbo.org/

A link to the bird call resource kit created by Ann and others.  http://rpbo.org/bird_call_resource_kit.php

You can find Ann on Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/ann.nightingale

I hope you enjoy the episode.  Until next time.

Good birding. Good day!

In Episode #22 I ask why am I, and I think lots of other people, birders.  Why birding and not fly-fishing or painting or a million other hobbies/passtimes.  Some stories and clips from previous episodes augment the answer. Enjoy.

Here is a link to the Blair Bernson episode with the clip on. "The Rules of a Chase.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bird-banter-podcast-episode-18-with-blair-bernson/id1450449001?i=1000440536850  If you prefer a platform other than iTunes you can find links to Stitcher, Spotify and Podbean on BirdBanter.com  http://birdbanter.com/

Here is a link to the Dorian Anderson episode on why birding is so attractive. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bird-banter-podcast-episode-5-with-dorian-anderson/id1450449001?i=1000430710312

Be sure to check out the blog post on BirdBanter.com to see photos and supporting information. 

Good Birding. Good day!

On this episode I talk with Dr. Geoffrey Hill, professor at Auburn University, about his birding as well as his research. We spend bit of time talking about his theory on speciation, involving compatability of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.  It is pretty interesting, and I expect you will  find it informative and enjoyable.  

Here is a link to The Hill Lab website  https://www.thehilllab.com/

This is his birding website:  https://www.ornithologistsblog.com/

I found this article about Dr. Hill's research and speciation theory very informative:  https://aeon.co/essays/why-do-the-most-flamboyant-males-have-the-evolutionary-edge

Thanks for listening. 

Good birding. Good day!

The Willettes?  Is this a broadway dance group?  A 60's music group?  No, its a group of birder women who love to go birding together.  That is of course when they are not drinking wine with bird labels, or buying or creating matching bird-theme apparel.  I hope you enjoy this episode with Wilette #1, #4 and #13, also known as Diane, Faye and Laurel. 

Diane Yougenson-Quinn writes the lead article for almost every Tahoma Audubon newsletter. You can see her work here:  https://www.tahomaaudubon.org/newsletter

Laurel Parshall is excellent photographer and you can see lots of her work on her Flickrer site https://www.flickr.com/photos/llp_unesolitaire

Check out the associated blog post about the Willettes on the Bird Banter website.  http://birdbanter.com/index.php/blog/

Until next time. Good birding. Good day!

In this episode I talk with Will Brooks.  Will took the Pierce County, WA birding community by storm 3 years ago when he matriculated at the University of Puget Sound, about 1.5 miles from where I live.  Since he has found many of the rarities in the county, has set a new Pierce County big year record with 245 species, and has earned not just the respect, bur the awe of the rest of the county birders. We talk about his birding story, his county big year, strategies for finding rare birds, and his research last summer on the local subspecies of White-crowned Sparrows.  Enjoy!

Here is a link to a recent WOS newsletter where Will published an article about his research. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews179.pdf

Here is a link to the ABC Birding club site and a writeup about his presentation to our club. http://abcbirding.com/will-brooks-tells-us-the-secrets-of-white-crowned-sparrows-march-26-2019/

This is a link to Will's eBird profile.  https://ebird.org/pnw/profile/NDE3OTMx/US-WA-053

I'll put up a blog post with more details about our interview on Http://birdbanter.com

Good birding.  Good day!

In this episode Ed and Blair talk about Blair's birding story as well as his 50-50-50 quest to see 50 species of birds in one day in each of the 50 United States each with a local birder. Enjoy.

Check out Blair's blog at https://blairbirding.com/

You can also find blair on Facebook as Blair Bernson or often posting to the Washington Birding listserv, Tweeters.  http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/

Be sure to leave a review and rating whereever you get your podcast feed. Check out Birdbanter.com for more details about this blog post and to check out prior episodes. You can also get direct links to The Bird Banter Podcast on the iTunes store, Stitcher or Spotify there 

Until next time. Good birding.  Good day. 

On Episode #17 Ed talks about the recent Memorial Day weekend, memories of this weekend gone by, and the recent ABC Birding meeting where Ken Brown from Episodes #2 and #6 presents a talk on birding names and nomenclature.  

Ed talks about stumbling onto a colony of nesting Pigeon Guillemots on Anderson Island, and the Willettes, a group of women in the ABC club. 

Check out the post on the ABC Birding Blog about Ken's talk. http://abcbirding.com/whats-in-a-name-ken-on-bird-names-and-nomenclature/

Look for more about this episode on the blog at BirdBanter.com.  http://birdbanter.com/index.php/2019/05/28/the-bird-banter-podcast-episode-17-memorial-day-weekend-notes/

Until nest time. Good Birding. Good day!

In this episode Ed talks with Shawneen Finnegan, one of the top U.S. birders who offers a wealth of perspective on birding, rare birds commettees and what it has been like to be a top female birder when at times she was part of a significant minority. 

Here is a link to Shawneen's Linked In page. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawneen-finnegan-4200501a/

Here is her new website where she show paintings of pets. https://www.shawneenfinnegan.com/

Check out my website where I have a blog, as well as links to all of my previous podcast episodes, as well as quick ways to access the podcast episodes on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.  http://birdbanter.com/

Here is a link to the 5-day San Diego Pelagic Trip web site we talk about in this episode. https://www.bajawhale.com/wildlife-tours/pelagic-birding-tours/

Be sure to leave a review on the iTunes store or whereever you get your podcast feed. 

Until next time. Good birding. Good day.