Episodes
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Well, itâs September 1, 2024, the Dog Days of Birding are behind us and fall migration is underway, signalling the end of the summer breeding season and birds booking their flights south for the winter. Happily for birders, there are no direct flights from the breeding grounds in the north to the wintering grounds in the south, which means we are graced by the presence of southern migrants. When the wind is just right, shorebirds and seabirds pass through, many of them stopping to refuel at various mudflats. rivers, lakes and ponds, where they fill their bellies with enough food to get them through the next stage of their journey. Some birds, like jaegers and southern migrating gulls, like the Sabineâs, donât always stop as they pass over the lake. In that case, birders who want to count such birds as Long-tailed Jaeger, Parasitic Jaeger or any other rarity that happens to be blown off course, head to the beaches and cliff edges for the annual lake and sea watches. This is especially important if youâre doing a Big Year.
In the case of todayâs guest, and myself in 2022, we were lake watching on opposite sides of Lake Huron. Danny Bernard was looking for jaegers and other rarities for his Michigan State Big Year and I was scanning the waters for a Long-tailed Jaeger to complete my jaeger trifecta for my Canada Big Year,(Long-tailed, Parasitic and Pomarine). Luckily for me, birders like Danny were communicating from the US side whenever they had a sighting and that helped me get to see my only Long-tailed Jaeger of the year. I should have had them up in The Yukon in the summer, but thatâs another story, for another show. Suffice it to say, we both got our bird and celebrated in style. Pie for Danny and a steak dinner for me. Though we didnât know it, we were destined to cross paths again, this time, instead of across the lake, we met over the internet.
And as we were talking about alternative Big Years, that got both of us thinking. There are so many ways to do a Big Year. Who says it has to be a state or county or even start on January 1st? Well, the record keepers for the ABA area might have a thing or two to say about it, if you want an official title, but what the heck. If you want your Big Year to start on your birthday, go for it, or perhaps your wedding anniversary. In that case, be prepared for it to be your last anniversary. Unless, of course, your spouse is as rabid a Big Year birder as you, in that case, have at it. More and more, couples or brothers or even best friends are teaming up to do Big Years. 4 eyes and ears are better than two of each, and you get to split the driving and hotels bills. Which reminds me that a future episode will feature local Brant County birders Ellen and Jerry Horak, who as of this date, are 3/4 of the way through their Ontario Big Year. In 2023 they did a Brant county Big Year, and in 2025 will be heading out across the country together to see if they can count over 400 species during their Canada Big Year. Iâll look forward to hearing how easy or perhaps hard it is to bird everywhere, every day together.
So, since I need to wrap up this introduction, without further blather from me, letâs log into our Teams meeting and check in with Danny Bernard and his record breaking 2022 Michigan Big Year.
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Welcome, birders and non birders who have to put up with the birders in their lives, to the Big Year Podcast, with me, the one, the only,(thankfully), Robert Baumander. As I sit and type this introduction, it is August 1, 2024 and the unofficial start of The Dog Days of Summer. Actually, for birders in Ontario, at least, the birding really begins to slow down near the beginning of July. But even so, there have been a few rare birds to chase, including a Brown Booby and a Ruff. Boobies are quite rare in Ontario, but Iâve seen a few over the years. Of course, if you want to really see boobies in their natural habitat you just need to visit south Florida in the spring.
And whatâs a Ruff? My research has found that it is named for the feathers it displays with its tufts, or ruff extended. The Ruff is a medium sized sandpiper and on its breeding grounds the males put on the most spectacular displays worthy of any fashion show catwalk. Alas, though I have seen plenty of boobies, I have never seen a Ruff display. For that you need to visit a Lek in Northwestern Alaska.
Now, to get to todayâs episode. We are returning, once again to Ontario and will meet a young man, who in 2023, after watching so many of his fellow birders do Big Years the previous year, decided that he would enjoy trying one himself. Marcus Legzdins was in his final year of high school, and was birding in the Oakville area when, in December of 2022, decided to do an HSA Big Year. Whatâs the HSA you ask? I had heard of it, but just thought it was where birders who lived in Hamilton reported their sightings. But it has exact boundaries and strict rules for reporting species for official records. It is a circle, 25 miles,(about 40 kilometres) centred on downtown Hamilton. Yes, we birders are sticklers for details. If you see the bird on the wrong side of the road, well, you havenât really seen it in the HSA until it crosses that invisible boundary. I wonder if itâs bad form to coax the bird over the line with calls or sunflower seeds?
You donât have to be crazy to do a Big Year, as Marcus showed me during our chat, but it doesnât hurt either. A common theme I have found is, even if itâs not to the level of my obsessiveness, a desire to make sense of the world, whether itâs making bird lists, or traveling to exotic places to see things youâve never seen before, and in some cases, never imagined seeing. Itâs the desire to collect, not just things, but memories, and stories of adventures you can share with the world. Many birders love taking photographs but a lot do not. To them itâs the experience that makes it rewarding. Though Iâm not sure I ever met a Big Year birder who wasnât also a photo buff.
Exotic locals and photo memories are not necessary to enjoy many aspects of a Big Year, or birding in general. Marcus birded in a pretty good patch, but as he told me, anywhere you live, you can find that one spot where youâll almost always have good birding. Big Years can be really small or really big. And can be in any patch you find. Anyway, Marcus was perfectly located in Oakville to begin his year long quest.
So sit back, relax, since August birding is so slow anyway, and enjoyâŠ
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Episodes manquant?
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Todayâs episode, features a trailblazer, who was the first woman to do a full out ABA Big Year and has been an inspiration to women in the birding world ever since she saw 723 species in 2008, one more than Sandy Komitoâs first Big Year in 1986. Lynn Barber is an author and artists and had done two Texas Big Years prior to her ABA Big Year and has since done Alaska and Wisconsin Big Years, Her first Book, Extreme Birder is a must read for anyone considering doing their own big year. She now lives in Wisconsin and is working on a new book about owls.
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Well, happy birding to everyone who has chosen to join me here today. It is Saturday, June 1st, 2024, as I type. I'm Robert Baumander and this is The Big Year Podcast. My guest is Brett Forsyth, who, in 2022, did a self-powered Big Year, which means he never got in the car to go to see any bird, only walking or cycling from home. So that was a grind of a Big Year because he cycled nearly every day, in every type of weather, sometimes 150 to 300 kilometres and in single day. And I can safely say he now has the all time record for self-powered Big Years in Ontario.
But first:
Moose, Busses and Automobiles
Now I have a little story to tell. Once again, I shouldnât be alive. I was doing my Trans-Canada Jay Highway trip, and I had a great time going all the way up to Halifax, Nova Scotia from my home in Brantford, Ontario. On my way back through New Brunswick, I decided, you know what? I'm going to go through Maine on the way home. Could be fun. What could possibly go wrong? Why not take a little detour and enjoy some of the sights and sounds of birds in Maine? I was about 15 miles from the border, I guess about a 30 minute drive, where I would cross the boarder into Quebec, and I was driving at night and I know, there is the hazard of moose on the road at night.
Of course, I was driving slower and I was paying attention to that possibility, and I thought, I'll be in Canada in half an hour. Why not just keep going instead of finding a place to camp for the night? Well, that was the wrong decision. Going to Maine was the wrong decision, because at 9:02 p.m. on Saturday, May 25th, I hit the moose. The one thing I had been warned against since taking a defensive-safe driving course when I was 21, NEVER HIT THE MOOSE!
Luckily, that training on safe driving techniques, that I learned over 40 years ago when our instructor taught us about not hitting the moose,(hit the deer, hit the dog, hit the squirrel, hit the bird), but never hit the moose, saved my life. However, sometimes, though, there are situations where it's unavoidable and you have to be driving in such a way that you can avoid the crash or at least death. In my case, I avoided death. I was driving about five to ten miles per hour below the speed limit. I had my brights on. I was watching ahead for any sign of anything on the road. And suddenly I see the glint in the eye of a moose coming out of a ditch on the right side of the road. Instinct, luckily for me, took over. For once, I did everything right. I slammed on the brakes, making sure that I was swerving in such a way so as not hit the moose head on, veering a little bit to the right as the moose was moving to the left.
The moose leapt into the road, of course, it had to, and just as my car came to a stop, the moose's butt hit my windshield right in front of my eyes. Talk ab out intense? Oh my god, that was quite the moment, and yet I survived. So did the moose. It signalled a left turn and ran into the woods.
I was very much in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal Two things saved me from a very long night alone on an empty road. First, another driver, behind me in a pickup truck, on the way to his camp, stayed with me and second and more importantly, my iPhone 15Pro with Emergency SOS by satellite. Using the phone I was able to message for help and have Emergency Services come to my location and rescue me. Thanks Apple!
So, let this be a warning, because I hear about people who are driving the dark country roads, in Canada and the States, and they just, in the middle of the night, in the dark dark, with no other cars on the road, are just booming along at 80, 90 miles an hour, and every single one of those people who hit a moose is dead now.
Go slow, have your brights on, watch for moose. Or better still, don't drive these roads at night. That's crazy. I'll never do that again. But I am here to tell the tale. My car probably is probably a write off, and well, oh well, will get a replacement at some point in the next week or so to continue my journeys and voyages. Cars are replaceable, you are not. So, as the saying goes, stay safe out there.
And now, without further ado, now that you've heard my tale of woe, please enjoy The Big Year Podcast with Brett Forsyth!
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Welcome back to The Big Year Podcast. Sorry to have been gone so long, but birding seemed to drag me away from editing more often than not in April. Not to mention that I was recovering from a severe hand injury, when I fell after seeing both Rossâs and Snow Geese in Burlington in March. I hyper extended all the fingers on my right hand, using it to brace myself and protect my camera as tripped over a rock and fell to the ground.
It is May 2, 2024 and I was supposed to publish this episode yesterday, but once again, birds got in the way. In this case a Summer Tanager arrived in my old birding patch in Toronto, Colonel Samuel Smith Park, on the shores of Lake Ontario. There seems to be an eruption of Summer Tanagers here in Ontario this spring. This year at least half a dozen have shown up in various locations. I had just seen one in Chatham, not far from Rondeau provincial park, a few days ago, but one in Col. Sam was worth the drive yesterday morning. Second only to my ABA list, my Colonel Sam list is the most important to me. I began birding on January 1, 2012 and I have been birding there ever since. The summer tanager was number 242 for the park. With migration gearing up Iâm sure to out birding nearly every day, including a drive to the east coast, along the Trans-Canada Highway. Iâll be working on some new content and working on the next episode along the way. This trip, unlike my 2022 Big Year, will be on a budget. Iâve got a new air mattress for the back of my Ford EcoSport and will be camping most nights, probably in a WallMart parking lot, or the occasional roadside ditch. I might even splurge and get a spot in a province or national park some nights. I was inspired to do this trip by Tiffany Kirsten, as thatâs how she saved money when shebroke the all time lower 48 Big Year Record.
Well, enough of me rambling, so letâs get on to this episode.
My guest, all the way from the west coast, is Krissi Martin . Krissi did a double big year in 2022. While I was criss-crossing the country, Krissi was birding locally in two counties, the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver.
So, sit back, relax, unless youâre driving, and enjoy.
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Hello there everybody,
Welcome back to The Big Year Podcast. This is part 2 of my chat with the new all time record holder for a Canada Big Year, Bruce DiLabio. As I type this, itâs a sunny spring day in late March and the excitement of migration season is just around the corner. Itâs what all birders crave after a long, cold winter in the northern US and Canada.
However, for those in the southern US, migration gets going an about month earlier. And one of the best places to be in April is Texas and specifically, High Island on the Gulf Coast, where spring storms can bring the holy grail of migration season, a Fall Out. Sue and I will be heading there the second weekend of April and fallout or not, itâs one of the best places to see southern migrants passing through on their way home to their breeding grounds. Iâve experienced two fallouts. The first was at Fort DeSoto near Tampa Florida in April of 2012 and Sue and I enjoyed one in Rondeau Provincial Park in South Western Ontario in May of 2018. On both occasions, warblers and other songbirds were sitting, exhausted, like Christmas ornaments on all the trees. Not just a Kaleidoscope of color, but even carpeting the ground, forcing birders to gingerly step over and around them. And for Big Year birders, itâs an event not to be missed. Iâll be reporting live from Texas beginning April 10, and perhaps Iâll run into a birder or two doing their own Big Years.
In Part One, I left you hanging, so weâll pick up where we left off, with Bruce Di Labio heading out for his 53rd consecutive Ottawa Christmas Bird Count when things took a very unexpected turn.
I hope you enjoy listening to Bruceâs stories of his amazing, record shattering Canada Big Year. Having enjoyed many of the same adventures, including my own slip on the ice in Nova Scotia, that could have brought my Canada Big Year to a crashing end only 3 days into 2022, I can appreciate all Bruce went through in 2023. Congratulations Bruce. And good luck to anyone attempting their own Canada Big Year in future.
Next month, we have a guest from out west. Krissi Martin,(Sorry I said âKristiâ last month). Krissi lives in Abbotsford British Columbia and is known on line as Momma Birder. Krissi is very open about living life after a brain injury, and like many of us, has discovered that birding has had a very positive impact on her life. Weâll talk about that and the Big Years sheâs done in British Columbia and how birding in general and Big Years in particular can improve your well being and outlook on life. Following my chat with Bruce, Iâll leave you with a brief excerpt from my conversation with Krissi Martin.
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Hello Birders, welcome back to The Big Year Podcast. I am so excited to be back for a second season. I wasnât sure weâd get renewed but the birds tweeted their approval and desire to hear from even more Big Year birders, so here I am and boy do I have a great line up of guests ready to share their stories.
Over the course of the spring and summer, you will get to hear form Lynn Barber, the one of the great ABA Big Year birders, and author of many books, including Extreme Birder: One Womanâs Big Year, the story of her 2008 ABA Big Year. Lynn was the first birder to break Sandy Komitoâs record with 723 species.
Iâll also be catching up with a couple of Ontario Big Year birders, including Andrew Keaveny, who was doing his Ontario Big Year when I was a newbie birder doing an ABA Big Year in 2012, and Brett Forsyth who did a self-powered Ontario Big Year, in 2022 when I was doing my Canada Big Year. I will Never be doing a self-powered Big Year, I can tell you that right now.
Weâll also be venturing out west to talk to Kristy Martin, who did a Big Year in British Columbia, and Danny Bernard who completed a Michigan Big Year a few years ago.
But today we have Part One of my lengthy and wonderful chat with the new all time record holder for a Canada Big Year, Bruce Di Labio. In 2022, I was only the third birder to ever top 457 species for Canada in a single year. Hot on my tail during the second half of 2022 Bruce, who had already been birding and guiding for 50 years, pushed me until the final day of the year. During 2022, though we birded in many of the same places, sometimes within hours or even a few miles of each other, we never actually met. With Bruce breathing down my neck in New Brunswick near the end of the year, I was able to end up in top spot, with Bruce a close second, each of us only the third and forth birders to ever see over 450 species in one Canada calendar year.
Finally in the spring of 2023, when he was trying to break the all time record, we met at Point Pelee National Park during spring migration. We talked about his spark bird on that occasion, and his expectations for his Big Year. His initial hope was to hit at least 460 in 2023. Knowing what I missed in 2022 and my lack of extensive coast to coast birding experience, not to mention his vast knowledge of the country and where and when to find the most species at the best times, I expected him to pass my record, easily. Thanks to an amazing year for rarities in Canada, zoomed way past 460, setting a record that may stand for a very long time indeed. I know records are made to be broken, I just never expected to be dethroned less than a year later. I take solace in the fact that I was even able to get past 450, given my various physical and mental disabilities. We all bird for our own reasons, and a Big Year is a personal journey. The success you reap depends on the passion for birding that you sow.
So, as winter turns to spring and a birders fancy turns to migration and all the excitement of the return home of hundreds of snow âbirdsâ from the south, letâs catch up with the birders of The Big Year. Or words to that effect. Go forth and enjoy the podcast and the birds. Perhaps youâll be inspired to take on your next adventure!
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Hello birders, and other non-feathered friends, and welcome to Episode 14 and the final episode of Season 1 of The Big Year Podcast. I am thrilled to have Kelly-Sue OâConner, who runs Birder Brains, who along with myself and many other birders, live with various mental health issues, including Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Post-concussion Syndrome. In my case all three plus a few other, including Social Anxiety Disorder. Boy, do I hate the word "disorder" as a descriptive.
Anyway in this episode I did something very different. Because of the subject matter, I didnât edit out anything, as I thought it important to hear us as we really are and not hide our pauses and such. So, the idea was to not cut out the parts of the conversation that were challenging to us. You'll even hear, in my opening monologue, that sometimes I have trouble getting the words out, because of different mental challenges I have. So bear with us when we go off on tangents, and be patient where there might be some long pauses.
We wanted to get that message out that if you do have your own cognitive and mental challenges, itâs okay talk about it, and if you need help, there's always people you can talk to and people that can definitely give you advice and help you feel more comfortable with what youâre going through. I like to take some of these challenges like OCD and ADHD and put them to use in my everyday birding life.
So, sit back, relax,(unless youâre driving), and enjoy my chat with Kelly-Sue, live from the boardwalk in Rondeau Provincial Park.
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We are back. Welcome once again to the show about birders and their Big Years. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tiffany a while back and in a previous episode we were discussing the life changing events that accidentally pushed her into doing a Big Year in the Lower 48 states. And today as we continue with our discussion we shall see how life changing doing a Big Year was for Tiffany. At a crossroads in her life, during the pandemic and as a single, unemployed new home owner, she threw caution to the wind, and set out on an adventure that in the end, took her life into new directions that she may never have foreseen. Join me once again as we talk about her amazing 2021, record breaking Lower 48 Big Year.
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Welcome to Episode 12 of The Big Year Podcast.
For those of you here for the first time, my name is Robert Baumander, but I spent 41 years as Captain Video for the Toronto Blue Jays. Along the way I performed as a magician and Escape Artist, managed the computer system for Pizza Pizza, volunteered in elementary schools and The Hospital for Sick children doing magic and story telling and science classes. I have done a variety of Big Years in North America since I became a birder in 2012, and now spend my time, since my Canada Big Year in 2022, hosting this podcast and writing about my adventures in birding and my travels across Canada and North America.
This is part one of my chat with Tiffany Kersten, whoâs resume sounds like that of the Dos Equis guy. Iâll let her tell you about her many accomplishments and some of the other, shall we say, more eclectic endeavours that have kept her busy over the years. Suffice it to say, my resume doesnât even come close to stacking up against hers and I have been compared to the Dos Equis guy.
We had such an enjoyable and wide ranging conversation that I have had to divide it into two episodes. Her 2021 Lower 48 Big Year, where she broke the all time record with 726 species, took place in the midst of some challenging events in her life, as an unemployed single home owner during the Covid-19 pandemic, which lost her a spot on American Ninja Warriors. Really.
With all that being said, please enjoy Part One of my conversation with Texas birder Tiffany Kersten.
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And a hearty welcome to episode 11 of the Big Year Podcast. I'm Robert. Baumander, and I'm your guide to the life of the big year birding experience. Late in the year 2011, which seems like a lifetime ago, I saw a little movie called, not surprisingly, The Big Year.
One of my favorite actors, Steve Martin, was starring in it. I was also a fan of Jack Black and remembered him from way back when I saw High Fidelity. And who doesn't love Owen Wilson? So I told Sue that I'd like to see it and from the previews I just thought it was a buddy movie.
Sue didn't let on that it was actually about birding or I may not have gone. But we did go, and I, like my guest, Kiah Jasper, was drawn into the prospect of doing a Big Year. Keep in mind, at the time, I was not a birder and had only ever used binoculars at the racetrack. By the time the credits rolled with photos of all the birds and the Guster song, âThis could all be yours someday,â I was pretty much hooked. I remembered that Sue had the book, The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik, from the library, and I really hadn't given it a second thought. Now, I had to read the book. Well, listen to the audiobook. Even while listening to the book, I was secretly planning a Big Year.
Not a full out ABA plus Attu, but a smaller Big Year, birding wherever I traveled across North America. I had a full time job with the Toronto Blue Jays,(oddly appropriate), that took up the majority of my year and my days. What could it hurt to do a little birding along the way? And maybe see, oh I don't know, 300 or so species as I learned how to bird and what it took to become a birder.
The trouble was, and I really didn't acknowledge it at the time, I was suffering, or perhaps gifted with, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. On a January trip to California, my guide Eddie Bartley told me that if I really wanted to call it a Big Year, I had to go to Arizona, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Alaska. How could I possibly do that while working full time and I really had zero spare dollars in my bank account?
Well, it turns out if you are obsessive and determined enough, you can make a good stab at it. At the end of 2012 I was thousands of dollars in debt but had seen 600 species. Last year I completed a Canada big year. I counted 457 species tying the all-time record. And if that darn Limpkin had just flown far enough across the Niagara River into Canadian airspace, I would have had the all time record. Woe is me. But if âIfs and butsâŠâ as my mother used to say. However, in Ontario in 2022, one young man did break a record.
Kiah Jasper, at the age of just 20 - I'm 63, so yeah, just 20 - broke the all time record for an Ontario big year. He traveled thousands of miles, sometimes in terrible weather and on roads no birder had ever been to in the farther northern regions of Ontario, which put it into perspective, has a larger area than Texas.
When it was all said and done, Kiah had seen 359 species, blowing by the previous record of 343 species set in 2017. So, it's not a coincidence that Kyah is the final guest on my five part series on the Birders of the Ontario 2022 Big Year. I am grateful to Kiah for re-recording this episode after a couple of glitchy recordings, early in the year, made it nearly impossible to hear. My fault entirely and perhaps I should have fired myself on the spot. But, now it is finally finshed and this is the result of all that hard work and perseverance, just like, well, doing a Big Year.
Please. Finally. Enjoy.
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Welcome to Part 4 of my 5 part series on the Birders of the Ontario 2022 Big Year. Today I will be talking to Ezra Campanelli who was one of the 3 birders that broke the all time record for species in an Ontario Big Year with 357 species seen. He is one of a crop of young birders who are taking Ontario and the birding world by storm. These young birders are so knowledgeable that they are teaching some of the veteran birders a thing or two along the way. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed talking to Ezra. We became friends over the course of 2022 meeting often at different rare bird sightings and more often at Point Peele in the spring of that year.
But now I have to run off because a Roseate Spoonbill has been seen along the Grand River in Brant County and what an exciting bird to chase, especially for anyone doing a Big Year in 2023.
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Welcome to Part 3 of my 5 episode series on the birders of the 2022 Ontario Big Year. Three birders broke the all time record, including William Konze, who didn't even set out to do a Big Year, let alone break the record. Though he didn't end up on top, his accomplishment is still a testament to his dedication and hard work.
Travel in Ontario, which is even bigger than Texas, can be exhausting, sometimes chasing birds hundreds of miles away, driving 6 to 8 hours and in severe winer weather. If you're planning on doing an Ontario Big Year in the coming years, hearing the stories of Susan, Andy, William, Ezra and Kiah will give you a sense of what it takes and how much you can learn while competing to be the top birder in the province.
So, sit back, relax and enjoy another episode of The Big Year Podcast. Unless you're driving. In that case, pay attention to the road and enjoy the show.
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A long time ago in an era known as the Covid-19 Lockdowns, I met Andy Nguyen on a berm above the Grand River in Brantford, Ontario. We were looking or a California Gull and before finding it, I ran off to look for a Yellow-browed Warbler in Oakville. Because Andy was wearing a mask, as it was back in Covid times, I did not recognize him the next time we met.
But after a while, we got to know each other and became good birding buddies here in Southwestern Ontario. We birded many weekends and even drove out together to see a Grove-billed Ani in Perth County, Ontario in the fall of 2021.
Since then we have both completed our own Big Years. Andy took the opportunity in 2022 to do his own Ontario Big Year and learned a lot about, not just birding, but himself in the process. Big Years are, of course, an adventure, but they also are a learning experience and can teach you a thing or two about yourself, in the process.
So join me as we step back in time, to late 2021 and the Andy's adventures as he planned and executed his own Big Year.
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Welcome to another episode of the Big Year Podcast! My journey across North America to talk to and see what makes Big Year Birders Tick. Itâs July 2, 2023 as I broadcast from my Secret Big Year recording location, deep in the basement of my Brantford home. Itâs a rainy day so I am stuck indoors, not willing to brave the elements for anything but the rarest birds sighting. A far cry from what I or anyone else doing a big Year would do. Big Year birders brave the weather and more in quest of their goals.
This is Episode 7, if I am doing my math correctly and in previous episodes we have talked to ABA Big Year Birders, but beginning with this episode, we are going to focus on my home province of Ontario, Canada. In 2022, while I was galavanting all across Canada, a group of 5 intrepid birders had dedicated themselves to an Ontario Big Year.
Three of the top five birders, Ezra Campanelli, William Konze and Kiah Jasper each broke the all time Ontario Record. Two other birders, Susan Nagy and my local birding buddy Andy Nguyen were not that far behind. Though they did not break any records, their stories are just as interesting, as Big Years come in all shapes and sizes and are often as much a personal journey as they are attempts to break records.
Over the next 5 episodes, weâll all get to know Kiah, William, Ezra and Andy. But today we have Susan Nagy from London, Ontario who recorded 335 species in Ontario, whoâs Big Year began with a challenge from a friend to see which of them could see the most birds back in 2021. But rarities and the fun of competition turned what was just a friendly competition into her own 2022 Ontario Big Year and helped her finish in the top 5 in Ontario during what was one of the greatest provincial Big Years ever.
So enjoy Part One of my salute to the birders of the 2022 Ontario Big Year!
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The month of May in Southwestern Ontario is all about songbird migration and seeing as many warblers as possible. I knew I wasn't going to have time to edit previous podcasts and, naturally, no birders were going to have time to do sit down interviews that may cost them a Big Year Bird or Lifer, or just a skulking Mourning or Worm Eating Warbler.
So, instead, I took my recording device on the road to Point Pelee National Park, Long Point and Rondeau Provincial Parks and City View Park in Burlington, Ontario. I walked up to birders I have never met and birders I have known or at least seen on the trails and asked them what lit the fuse that sparked their burning passion into birding.
For me, the event For some it was seeing the movie "The Big Year" and the spark birds were the Nutting's Flycatcher and The Pink-footed Goose that bookended the movie. I saw both over the next 12 months in 2012.
For some people, it was an event and for others it was a specific bird. Join me for this special episode, where we will meet birders who found their passion because of some descendants of the dinosaurs evolved into the birds we see and love today.
Sit back, relax and perhaps you will have fond memories of the bird that sparked your interest in birding.
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Today is May 1, 2023 and it is the official start of Spring Migration here in Southern Ontario. Birders from far and wide, some doing their own Big Years, are beginning their own migration to Canadaâs spring birding hotspot, Point Pelee National Park to welcome the songbirds home. Down in Ohio, many birders will be making their way to The Biggest Week in American Birding. Sue and I had to cancel our last trip there, as the Covid Pandemic Lockdowns were just being felt in the spring of 2020.
Down in Texas, the âwingedâ migration begins a little earlier, and in fact, my guest today, Laura Keene, had just seen her first Golden-cheeked Warbler of the year just before we spoke in early April , a beautiful song bird that sadly will likely never make itâs way up north. Of course, who knows during migration season. We just had White Wagtail here in Ontario, we can always hope.
In 2016, inspired by a close friends battle with cancer, Laura began her own journey across North America, doing a photographic Big Year, recording a record breaking 763 species in the Continental US, and adding more birds in Hawaii to finished with 815 species, the vast majority of which she photographed, an achievement in itself.
Lauraâs story of doing a Big Year is as inspiring as it is exciting, and listening to her I'm sure you might just want to rush out and do your own Big Year. Iâm certainly inspired to do anther one. Maybe, it being May 1, perhaps a Big Migration Month.
Laura, even 6 years after her Big Year ,is still 4th all time for the Continental US and 7th, one behind Yve Morrel. But itâs not where you are in the standings or how many birds youâve seen, but as Laura has said, the places youâve been and the birders youâve met along the way that really adds meaning to the lists we make on our Big Year Journeys.
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I met Karen Miller on Canada Day in 2022. I was running out of options to get close enough to Bill's Island, off of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, so I could see American Oystercatchers. If the ferry had not been late, I'd have never met Karen and her husband Bill, who had been ferrying birders out to the island all day, to see these rare visitors to Canada.
Then, on December 21 I was given an early Christmas present, in the form of a Green-tailed Towhee, another crazy-rare bird to show up in New Brunswick,(all that on top of the Stellar's Sea Eagle, just three weeks earlier). It was there in Sackville, that I ran into Karen and Bill again, at first not realizing they were the friendly birders who took me out on their boat.
Another friend, Mitch Doucet, told me she had the record for New Brunswick Big Years. We chatted a bit that December afternoon, after seeing the towhee, and I wanted to get to know more about her life in birding and her amazing, record setting New Brunswick Big Year.
Recently she joined me for an afternoon of conversation about birds and fond memories of her Big Year.
Enjoy!
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On today's episode we talk to Christian Hagenlocher. At the age of 26 he did his 21st century version of a Big Year on a budget,(a tight budget), and saw 752 species. He was the youngest birder to ever pass 750, making it an even greater accomplishment.
Christian is creator of The Birding Project and author of the book, Falcon Freeway: A Big Year of Birding on a Budget. You can find it on Amazon,(link below). He is now a middle school teacher in Washington State and recently returned from an Antarctic adventure.
Christian and I met on a wild goose chase for a Barnacle Goose in the winter of 2016, and were also at the scene of a Zenaida Dove in Florida, but didn't know the other was there.
Join me as we reminisce about our adventure in 2016, each doing our own Big Years.
Next episode, we will delve into Ontario Big Years with my guest, Kiah Jasper, whose episode is delayed because I screwed up. Sorrr about that.
https://www.amazon.ca/Falcon-Freeway-Year-Birding-Budget/dp/1543985033
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Episode 2 of the Big Year Podcast features Yve Morrell.
I first met Yve Morrell in 2017 during her Big Year. I had flown down to Texas to search for a Jabiru. A bunch of us, including Yve, searched in vain for it for most of the day. Many of us did get a Black Rail that day, so it wasnât a total loss for ether of us.
What we didnât know at the time is we were both booked on a pelagic with Debbie Shearwater in Californian and met again on the boat. The highlight of the trip, for me, was a Blue-footed Booby.
My other reason for going to California, after Texas, was to finally see the California Condor. I had looked for it in 2012 at what was then Pinnacles National Monument, but had no luck that day. I mentioned to Yve that I was going and she met me there for the long hike up the mountain at the newly renamed, Pinnacles National Park, to find them.
Yve continued on with her Big Year and eventually saw species 816, the Loggerhead Kingbird in Florida, giving her top spot for the 2017 ABA Big Year.
You can find Yve at her website thedancingbirder.com
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