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Is This Your Bird?
On May 1, 2023 I received an email from David Estroff of Gig Harbor, Washington with “Is this your bird” as the subject. I knew immediately that his email was going to be about a banded bird. I hoped that it would be one of mine and it was! David was birding on Grays Harbor […]
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Mentoring Toward a Career in Wildlife Science and Conservation
My wife Sue and I spent the last week of February in Tucson, Arizona. A highlight of that visit for me was presenting a seminar at the University of Arizona’s school of natural resources, the title of which was Reflections on a Career in Wildlife Science and Conservation – 30 Years and Counting. I was […]
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Turkey Vulture Amelia Soars Free!
On August 4, 2022 Jake Burroughs, Sandra Miller and I trapped a Turkey Vulture for the Coastal Raptors Turkey Vulture Tracking research project. We fitted that vulture with a transmitter and wing-tag EA. Captured at the Ocean Shores, Washington airport, we named this one Amelia after famed aviator Amelia Earhart. (Vultures cannot be sexed by […]
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The Fishing Line Threat
On April 4, 2020 Ocean Shores photographer Pat Hayes gave me a call, indicating that a Bald Eagle was dead on the beach north of Ocean Shores. I drove to the closest access road and found the way blocked to vehicle traffic due to the pandemic. Thinking that my research permit from Washington State Parks […]
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Peregrine Falcon 32/B – The Gray Ghost!
Dave Murnen, Jake Burroughs, Tom Rowley and I conducted a raptor survey on October 13, 2022 on the Ocean Shores beach that was marked by two firsts. It was the first time to band three Peregrine Falcons during the same survey. And, for first time, a Peregrine Falcon showing leucism was captured and banded (a […]
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Tracking Turkey Vulture ES
Whenever the USGS Bird Banding Lab contacts me with information from a person who has re-sighted one of our wing-tagged Turkey Vultures, I write them for more info. While the reports from the BBL provide me with basic information about the observation (i.e., who saw the bird, when and where), there’s always more to be […]
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Remembering Peregrine Falcon Z/U
Z/U, a female Peregrine Falcon banded by Coastal Raptors in 2015, was found dead near Ruby Beach on the Olympic Peninsula’s north coast. The falcon was found by Jessie Huggins and Dyanna Lambourne on October 9, 2022. It’s worth noting that Jessie and Dyanna are members of the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network (Stranding […]
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California Condors Return to the Pacific Northwest
The California condor is among the world’s most critically endangered species. As of mid-September 2022, only 537 are in existence, 334 living in the wild, the rest in captivity (source: Ventana Wildlife Society). Once found across North America, with the die-off of large terrestrial mammal species 10,000 years ago, condor range contracted to the Pacific […]
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Monitoring Gyrfalcon Nesting in Norway
On June 3 good friend and long-time Coastal Raptors volunteer Dave Murnen and I departed Washington for an adventure that took us first to Iceland for several days of sightseeing, then on to Norway for fieldwork with Gyrfalcons. There we joined Kenneth Johansen and others to monitor Gyrfalcon nesting. Many thanks to Kenneth for hosting […]
