The Salish Sea School will be hosting me for a Science in Action talk on the fascinating and very different nesting behavior of my two favorite alcids—the Marbled Murrelet and the Pigeon Guillemot. While these two seabirds have family traits and life histories in common, they present very different challenges for the birder, scientist, community scientist, and writer. This slide presentation includes a Q&A. This event is free! Register here. Join Maria and the Salish Sea School staff after at Greenpoint, Washington Park to participate in a community science survey of these amazing seabirds and to learn more about what the Salish Sea School is doing to protect Marbled Murrelets Sign up for that here.

The Joys of One-Bird Birding Whidbey Audubon members are no strangers to Pigeon Guillemots. Since 2003, these lively, charming seabirds have gained a wide and devoted following on the island as the focal species of the Salish Sea Guillemot Network. There are now 250 volunteer community scientists in this ever-expanding network of “guillemoteers” and Maria is one of them. Though her first encounters with the guillemots on Puget Sound were centered on data collection, Maria’s hour-long surveys led to a curiosity-fueled, multi-year exploration of the guillemots and the lives they live beyond the data sheets. Maria’s new book The Bird with the Flaming Red Feet is informed by her thirteen years among the guillemots on an inlet near her home in Olympia. Her slide presentation is a celebration of the Pigeon Guillemot, the Salish Sea Network, community science, and the joys of “one-bird birding.” Q&A, followed by book sales and signing.

Whether you’re a birder or not, you’ll be charmed by a lively and charismatic Pigeon Guillemot. These Pacific coast seabirds are common, easy to spot, and fun to watch close-up from shore, though they are often overlooked by birders seeking more elusive and rarer life-list birds (such as their more famous cousins, the puffins). Pigeon Guillemots have unique and fascinating stories to tell about being a seabird and about the workings of our shared environment. And, lucky for us, they tell them loud and clear. Since 2013, Maria has been watching and listening to the guillemots nesting on Puget Sound near Olympia as a volunteer community scientist with the Salish Sea Guillemot Network.  Q&A plus book sales and signing.

Join author Maria Mudd Ruth as she shares what she’s learned about the guillemots, about “one-bird birding,” and the community of “guillemoteers” devoted to this marvelous seabird.

Join me in a lively conversation with fellow Pacific Northwest “bird author” Marina Richie. Marina is an award-winning nature writer living in Bend, Oregon. Her new book, Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees will be hot off the press (and includes a chapter on the Marbled Murrelet). Her previous book, Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher, received the 2024 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. We’ll explore the common themes in her books my books, Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet and my latest The Bird With Flaming Red Feet.