Select Writings

I am honored to have an essay in this collection. “My Tribe” chronicles my interaction with several Ruby-crowned Kinglets and how that meeting brought back memories of my early birding experiences in high school.

Available at Third Place Books and other book stores.

2021

Spinning for Food. WOS News 189: 7-8. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews189.pdf

2020 

A Snipe Hunt. WOS News 188: 12. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews188.pdf

Trip Report: A First Snowshoe. Mountaineers Blog: January 17, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/trip-report-a-first-snowshoe

Nature’s Way: Pigeon Guillemots: Indicating the Health of the Salish Sea. January 28, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/natures-way-pigeon-guillemots-indicating-the-health-of-the-salish-sea  Originally published in the Mountaineer Winter 2019 https://issuu.com/dougc/docs/mtrvol113no1_winter19_web?e=1318185/66169196

Little Tyrants. WOS News 187: 5-6. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews187.pdf

Birding with a Warped Mind. WOS News 187: 4, 12-14. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews187.pdf

Ramsay, S. 2020 – Leader Spotlight: Thomas Bancroft. – June 29, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/leader-spotlight-thomas-bancroft

A Sense of Hope. Mountaineers Blog: June 30, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/a-sense-of-hope  Also on Audubon Washington’s Blog: as Hope and a Red-winged Blackbird. https://wa.audubon.org/news/hope-and-red-winged-blackbird

A Tea-Kettle Song. WOS News 185: 7-8. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews185.pdf

World Birds: The Purple Grenadier. WOS News 185: 9. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews185.pdf

Not so Mundane: The Pied-billed Grebe in Our Hemisphere. WOS News 184: 8. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews184.pdf

Birding Basics: Start a lifelong journey of bird watching. Mountaineer: Fall 2020: 50-51  https://issuu.com/dougc/docs/mtrvol114no4_fall20_issuu/50?ff – Republished as: Did You Know? Birding Basics: Start a lifelong journey of bird watching. September 26, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/did-you-know-birding-basics-start-a-lifelong-journey-of-bird-watching  

Soaring over Washington. Mountaineers Blog: September 15, 2020. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/soaring-over-washington

The Butcher Watchman. WOS News 183: 7. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews183.pdf

Finding Snipe. WOS News 183:8.  https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews183.pdf

2019 

Winter’s Beauty on the Old Sauk Trail.  Mountaineers Blog: March 02, 2019.  https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/the-old-sauk-trail/

Behind the Shot: Birding in Panama’s Cloud Forest. WOS News 182:5-6. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews182.pdf

Tronsen Ridge Wildflowers in June in the Cascades of Central Washington. TheTravelWriters.net – September 15, 2019. https://thetravelwriters.net/thomasbancroft/2019/09/the-wildflowers-on-tronsen-ridge/?fbclid=IwAR2SkaxM5AAvaAgiYTidl1fFqoP0j0Sfd1jficbfK5TQZLHE3CxRecCE5ek

Exploring Swift Creek and the Lake Ann Trail at Mount Baker. Mountaineers Blog. October 7, 2019. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/exploring-lake-ann-and-swift-creek-mount-baker

A Remarkable May Weekend – The Moses Lake Conference. WOS News 181: 1, 5-7, 9-10. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews181.pdf

Stories from the Cloud Forest of Western Panama. Mountaineers Blog: October 9, 2019. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/stories-from-the-cloud-forest-of-western-panama

The Grace of Trumpeter Swans. WOS News 179: 3, 21. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews179.pdf

Bird and Hike the Clough Forests of Western Panama.  Mountaineers Blog: December 26, 2019. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/bird-and-hike-the-cloud-forests-of-western-panama

The Aspen Grove. WOS News 178: 17. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews178.pdf

Antarctic Fossils: Paleontology at Shackleton Glacier Camp. Mountaineer: Winter 2019. https://issuu.com/dougc/docs/mtrvol113no1_winter19_web?e=1318185/66169196

Feeling Small. Maptia: https://maptia.com/thomasbancroft/stories/feeling-small

2018 

The Rufous Hummingbird WOS News 177: 9. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews177.pdf

Trip Report: Hiking in the Mist.  Mountaineers Blog: September 5, 2018. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/hiking-in-the-mist

Trip Report: Lake Ann in the Rain. Mountaineers Blog: September 10, 2018. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/lake-ann-in-the-rain

Trip Report: Lake Ann in the Rain. Mountaineers Blog: https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/lake-ann-in-the-rain

Trip Report: Hiking in the Mist. Mountaineers Blog: https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/hiking-in-the-mist

Always the Meadowlark. WOS News 176: 10. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews176.pdf

Black-backed Woodpecker among Ponderosa. WOS News 175 3, 15. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews175.pdf

Finding Wildness in a Species of Sparrow. WOS News 175:19. https://wos.org/documents/wosnews/wosnews175.pdf

A Swainson’s Thrush in Panama. WOS News 174:14. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews174.pdf

A Breathtaking Baritone. WOS News 173: 7-8. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews173.pdf

Robust and Resilient Life. Mountaineers Naturalist Newsletter: April: 2. https://www.mountaineers.org/locations-lodges/seattle-branch/committees/seattle-naturalists-committee/naturalist-newsletters

Rosario Head. Mountaineers Naturalist Newsletter: March: 3-4. https://www.mountaineers.org/locations-lodges/seattle-branch/committees/seattle-naturalists-committee/naturalist-newsletters

March Point. Mountaineers Naturalist Newsletter: March 2018: 5. 

Olympia, climate and the America Pika. Crosscut January 2018. https://crosscut.com/2018/01/olympia-climate-and-american-pika

A Naturalist’s Notes on Books: Red-tails in Love: Pale Male’s Story – A True Wildlife Drama in Central Park by Marie Winn. WOS News 171: 7. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews171.pdf

Field Trip Report: Winter Birds of Okanogan and Douglas County. WOS News 171: 13, 18  http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews171.pdf

Slurp, Slurp, Slurp of the Trumpeter Swans. WOS News 171: 14. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews171.pdf

2017

A Naturalist’s Notes on Books: Thoughts on “The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland” by John Lewis-Stempel. WOS News 170: 16. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews170.pdf

About the Recent WOS conference. WOSNews 169: 27-29. http://wos.org/documents/wosnws/wosnews169.pdf

First Person: Hopping across Cedar Run. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2017. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2017/07/08/Hopping-across-Cedar-Run/stories/201703310010

Hike to Wombat Ridge. Maptia:  https://maptia.com/thomasbancroft/stories/hike-to-wombat-ridge

2016 & Before

Seeking Solitude in the Wilds of Washington. Maptia: https://maptia.com/thomasbancroft/stories/seeking-solitude-in-the-wilds-of-washington

Citizen scientists make a difference.  2010. American Birds 64: 9-12. https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/documents/ab_110_citizenscientists.pdf

Christmas Bird Counts and Climate Change: Northward shifts in early winter abundance.  American Birds 63: 10-15. 2009. Lead authors D.K. Niven & G. S. Butcher. https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/documents/AB_109_CBC_and_Climate_Change.pdf

Going, Going, Gone?  An Assessment of the Global Decline in Bird Populations.  Testimony before the Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, House of Representatives. 2009.

An ecological perspective on the National Report on Sustainable Forests-2003. 2005 with Caroline Alkire.  http://www.sustainableforests.net/perspectives/Bancroft%20for%20Web.pdf

Biodiversity & Landscape Ecosystem Integrity. With R. Pulliam & D. Blockstein. 2000.http://cnie.org/NCSEconference/bp/background1.htm

Florida Bay: an endangered North American Jewel. 1993. Fla. Naturalist 66:4-9.

Water that’s too salty, dogs Florida Bay, ruins the ecology.  Miami Herald 10 October 1992. Letter to Editor.

Rare, Local, Little Known and Declining North American Breeders: White-crowned Pigeon.  1992. Birding 23:21-24.

Status and Conservation of Wading Birds in the Everglades. 1989.  American Birds 43:1258-1265. https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/nab/v043n05/p01258-p01265.pdf

Many scientific papers published in science journals like The Auk, The Condor, The Wilson Bulletin, The Ibis, Conservation Biology.