Calling all bird nerds, guillemot groupies, and curious naturalists! This morning, Katie Campbell, host of the KUOW Book Club, posted her interview with me about The Bird with the Flaming Red Feet. (KUOW is the NPR station on the campus of the University of Washington, Seattle.) We were both pretty excited about the guillemots and we both sound like very chatty, excited, energetic Pigeon Guillemots during our half-hour interview. We had fun talking about what makes the guillemots so interested, unusual and important in Puget Sound; the origins of the long-running community science program studying them; and the joys of making a deep dive as a “one-bird birder;” and where to see Pigeon Guillemots around Seattle this summer. Listen here.
Further down the Pacific Coast in Oregon, Hannah Buschert hosts the “Bird Nerd Book Club” from Cannon Beach—a hot spot for many breeding seabirds and bird nerds. Our conversation covers questions such as: Why study a common bird? How do community scientists collect data on this bird? What are we learning from the guillemots? Listen here.
Hannah host two additional podcasts—”Women Birders (Happy Hour)” and “Hannah and Erik Go Birding” (with her husband, Erik). They offer all sorts of guided birding adventures around the globe and locally. June through August the couple offers free Tufted Puffin Walks to Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach. About 100 Tufted Puffins nest on the rock . Oh, but guess what? There are Pigeon Guillemots nesting there, too! You don’t want to miss them! For the meeting place and other details, visit their website here.
Join me in Cannon Beach on July 9th! I’ll be speaking about the Pigeon Guillemot at the Cannon Beach Library at 1 p.m. and then joining Hannah for a walk down to Haystack Rock right afterward to see the Pigeon Guillemots (and other birds). Spotting scopes and binoculars available for zooming in on those flaming red feet.