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.

Join me at this second of two talks hosted by the Tahoma Bird Alliance (the first on April 11). I’ll be offering a slideshow presentation about my new book, The Bird with Flaming Red Feet: Seasons with an Uncommonly Common Seabird (Mountaineers Books/Skipstone Press). My book is part natural history of the exuberantly charming Pigeon Guillemot and the successful, long-running community science program focused on these birds in the Salish Sea. This is will be a 40-minute presentation with time afterward for Q&A and books sales and signing.