Season 3, Episode 1: Jean Iron

Yes, The Big Year Podcast is back.

And after a long, cold, snowy winter, the temperatures are finally on the rise and the birds are finally on migration.

It’s March 15, 2025 as I sit down to write this, I’m looking out my front window, here Brantford, Ontario to bright blue skies and hearing Northern Cardinals in full song, a sure sign of spring and the migration season to come.

I hope you are all in the spring migration spirit, shedding those layers and putting on your fancy spring birding plumage.  As for me, I just switch from fleece lined cargo pants to regular cargo pants, and of course, my biggest plumage change is from a winter fur fedora to a straw, summer fedora.

So, welcome to the first episode of Season 3.  Being an Ontario birder myself, I figured there’s no better place to start than with one of Ontario's most respected birders, Jean Iron. Many of you have met Jean at a hawk watch at Lynn shores in the fall, out at Niagara, looking for gulls in the winter or at Point Peel National Park in the spring.

You may have met her, but now you'll get a chance to know her.

I first ran into Jean early in January 2012 on one of my first rare bird chases to see a King Eider, and she taught me a valuable lesson that I have taken to heart ever since, and it was a lesson she also learned early in her birding life.

Thanks for taking the time come visit and enjoy the show.

 

Oh, while you’re here, I'd like to ask you to please check out my new book, “Have you a Seagull?” on Apple Books, for C$4.99

https://books.apple.com/us/book/have-you-seen-a-seagull/id6742723612

It's a great book to read with your kids teach them about the wide variety of birds many of us call “seagulls,” and perhaps spark their journey into birding.

As of this recording, it's only available on Apple books, but will be available on other digital platforms soon and hopefully in print before too long.  50% of all digital sales will go to bird conservation efforts, so, if not for me, get it for the birds and for the next generation of birders.

Thanks again.