Program: Birding Japan’s Outer Islands – Benefit evening with Brad Schram

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Date & Time

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Location

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 Cost: $20 at the door. All proceeds benefit Santa Barbara Audubon.

 

pgm-Brad-Schram-1.jpgYou may have birded with Brad Schram in the morning, but don’t miss this evening’s presentation by Brad on his adventures birding Okinawa and Amami islands of the Japanese outer island chain the Ryukyus and Tobishima island located NW of Honshu. Okinawa and Amami both have multiple endemic species of birds, the flightless Okinawa Rail (or Yanbaru) being one.


Pictured above is the Okinawa Rail on Brad’s left, and the Narcissus Flycatcher, a migrant of Tobishima, on his right.


 

pgm-Brad-Schram-2.jpgTobishima Island is a small fishing island with some native forest and neat vegetable gardens that is famous among Japanese birders for its “Golden Week” each year (1st week in May) that is bound to bring lots of passage Asian migrants–much like California birders going to desert migrant traps to look for vagrants. Tobishima is located 24 miles off Sakata Port and still retains unsullied natural beauty. It takes about two hours to go around the island and there are no traffic lights.


Brad is the author of the last two editions of the ABA/Lane Guide:
A Birder’s Guide to Southern California. Once president of our Audubon chapter, he leads trips worldwide for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT), having birded on all continents and scores of the world’s oceanic islands.

Brad became fascinated with birds as a child in the mountains of California, the start of an enthusiasm that has modified and enriched his life. Since his early retirement from the business world in 1996, he has led birding tours in much of the American West, as well as Alaska, Antarctica and the sub-antarctic islands, Hawaii, Iceland-East Greenland, Kenya, and Trinidad and Tobago. While serving as bird-naturalist on adventure cruise ships, his travels have included Kamchatka, the Aleutians, and the Bering Sea; numerous islands throughout Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia; the Canadian High Arctic; and Antarctic voyages. He lives with his wife Dianne in Arroyo Grande, California.