The Big Year Podcast

Episode 5: Laura Keene 2016 Record Breaking Photographic Big Year

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 Canada’s 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 “winged” 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 it’s 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.  

Laura’s 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.  I’m 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 it’s not where you are in the standings or how many birds you’ve seen, but as Laura has said, the places you’ve been and the birders you’ve met along the way that really adds meaning to the lists we make on our Big Year Journeys. 

 

Episode 4: Karen Miller 2017 New Brunswick

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!

Episode 3: Christian Hagenlocher 2016 ABA Big Year

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

Episode 2: Yve Morrell 2017 ABA Big Year

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 wasn’t a total loss for ether of us.  

What we didn’t 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

Episode 1: Sandy Komito Record Breaking Big Years

Episode 1 of The Big Year Podcast features Sandy Komito, who twice broke the ABA Big Year birding records in 1987 and again in 1998.  

 

The Big Year Podcast Preview

The Big Year Podcast, begins January 30, 2023.

Having just completed a Canada Big Year in 2022, birding across the country for 365 days and seeing 456 species, I am now putting my obsessions, ahm, efforts into talking to the birders of the Big Year.

Birders who have had the same commitment,(some should be committed according to their spouses), to see as many birds as possible in a local county, Provence, State, country, or the biggest of Big Years, in the ABA,(American Birding Association), Area.