Bird Banter

On The Bird Banter Podcast #122 Tiffany Kersten talks about her record breaking Lower 48 United States birding big year, seeing 726 species while raising awareness for the safety of women in nature.  It's a great story and Tiffany tells it well. 

You can see Tiffany's blog here. 

Read more about the year on The Bird Banter blog and find other big years on the podcast prior epsodes #121 Will Brooks and Jason Vassallo, #4 Christian Haganlocher, #5 with Dorian Anderson and his Biking for Birds Big Year, and #79 with Lynn Barber on her Texas and Alaska big years. 

As always comments and feedback are welcome, and if you have ideas of guests you'd like to hear on the podcast contact me on the website contact page. 

Thanks for listening. Until next time good birding and good day!

On this episode I talk with two young Washington State birders who are good friends, who met in an unusual circumstance, and who undertook big years in 2021.  Jason saw the 9th highest total species list ever seen in the lower 48 states, while documenting every sighting by photo or audio means, and did so while maximizing the fun, adventure and wonderlust experience of the year. Will broke the Washington State big year record by 6 species in a year when arguably the top vagrant location was closed to birding.  Both great accomplishments and it made for a lot of fun conversation. Enjoy.

See the Bird Banter blog post for lots more details.

Follow Jason's Instagram accounting of the big year. @Jason2021BigYear

Watch a video on Seattle News 5 for a brief discussion of Will's year.

On this episode Bob and I talk about his career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, his birding story and stories and more. How many birders have birded in Area 51?  My guess is not many.  His career path involved working at many of the great U.S. National Wildlife Refuges including the Loxahatchee NWR in Florida, the Wheeler NWR in Alabama, Kern NWR, Stillwater NWR in Nevada, and the Ridgefield and Columbia NWRs in Washington. 

Bob encouages birders to ask their senators Here are contacts for the WA Senators and Representative of that area. 

Senator Patty Murray

Thanks for listening.  

Read more on the  Birdbanter.com  blog. 

Until next time, good birding and good day!

On The Bird Banter Podcast #119 with Michael and Paula Webster we talk about their 5-year birding adventure in South America. They travelled in a Toyota pop-top camper van, had wild and harrowing experiences and saw remote and wonderful places, people and birds that are almost beyond belief.  They are real, as you can see by watching many of their videos on the You Tube Channel The Condors Feathers. 

Michael and Paula decided after careers in business for Michael and as a math teacher for Paula to follow their lifelong birding passion to travel, document and experience places they dreamed of seeing. They spent 5 years traveling throughout much of South America. While there they produced a fabulous video documentary on one of South America’s most endangered bird species, the Hooded Grebe.  It is spectacular.  Check out Tango in the Wind.  

Michael has written a book about the adventure, to be released in the U.K. in about February, and in the U.S. later in 2022 called The Condor’s Feather:  Traveling Wild in South America which you can find to pre-order on Amazon or in the U.K. at Waterstones.

I loved the chance to meet and talk with this amazing couple, and cannot wait to read the book.

Good birding and good day.  

On this episode Jim Danzenbaker and I talk about his experiences leading wildlife safaris to the Antarctic region, his pelagic birding experiences, his birding story, career, about Christmas Bird Counts and more.  Enjoy.

Find a CBC in Washington here.

See the 2021 CBC report from Natioinal Audubon here. 

Check out the blog post on the BirdBanter.com blog here. 

Until next time, good birding and good day1

On this episode Joe Morlan and I talk about his multifaceted birding career and experiences.  Joe taught birding classes at the College of San Francisco for year, served as member, chair and now as webmaster of the California Bird Records Committee, is an author, and is a really good storyteller.  

You can reach Joe from his website.

Read more on the BirdBanter.com blog post about this episode.

Thanks for listening.

Good birding and good day. 

On this episode Charlie and I talk about his early birding years, his time on remote Alaskan Islands and on research vessels, and his local birding especially at a new Tacoma hotspot Dune Peninsula Park.  Charlie was an early adopter and volunteer reviewer for eBird and is the data reviewer for COASST.  I'm really excited to have Charlie as a guest and think you'll enjoy hearing his story. Thanks for listening. 

As always read more about the episode on the BirdBanter.com blog post. 

Good birding and good day. 

On this episode I talk with Iván Lau, the birding guide I used on a recent brief trip to Medellin, Colombia.  Iván was really top notch, and we got in a lot of birding in the 3 days I had available.  Medellin was beautiful, the birds were spectacular, and the experience was great.  

You can contact Iván at on Instagram @ivanlaulovera or by email at 

On The Bird Banter Podcast #114 I talk with Zach Poland, a top Oklahoma birder who I heard about from Pete Janzen of Episode #112.  Zach talks about his birding story, birding in Oklahoma, how his training in geology influences his birding strategies and more. Enjoy. 

See the blog post on Birdbanter.com for additional information. 

Thanks for listening.

Good birding and good day!

There are few nuances of birding that cause more confusion and frustration than molt. Birds have to replace their feathers every year to survive, and understanding this process called molt can bring a not just a better understanding of birds and bird ID, but make looking at the details of plumage of each bird we see a little more fun. I'm certainly no expert on molt, but hearing about the process from the perspective of a non-expert who enjoys the subject may help listeners wrap their brains around the terminology used and the process. I hope so. 

Check out Steven N.G. Howell's great book Molt in North American Birds, which I said I'd link to in these notes, but appears to be out of print.  Borrow a copy from a birder you know if you can. 

I'll put up a blog post on BirdBanter.com with more details. 

Until next time, good birding and good day!