Birding on Steroids - The Big Year

National Agricultural Library prints

Christmas 2013 is about to have come and gone. We spend Christmas Eve with our Colorado son and his family in Fort Collins, and today in Oregon with our daughter, her family, and second son. Next week we will be California with our youngest son, and other members of both of your families - the marvels of air transportation. Jet-setting also makes it possible to chase records, such a the greatest number of bird species sighted in one calendar year - it's called a Big Year. I first read of such things in Birds of a Feather - a nice history of birding in America written by Scott Weidensaul. As it happened, my Colorado son and family gave me a DVD of The Big Year that stars Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson, and depicts a group of fellow birders who are in pursuit of finding out who will see the most birds - kind of a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for bird watching on steroids. I looked at my email when I got to my Daughter's home this evening, and one of the messages was the December news letter from the American Birding Association, and below is an article about a fellow who should set a new ABA record for bird head counts. (be warned, success is not guaranteed: last year the The Atlantic magazine ran an article about another birder seeking the annual record - he wasn't successful.)

Neil Hayward Poised to Break ABA Big Year Record (1)
Post Script: Hayward beat the record.

Since 1998, Sandy Komito's ABA Big Year record 748 has stood alone as the biggest year in ABA history, but it looks like now he may need to share the title. Massachusetts birder and ABA member Neil Hayward is currently sitting at 745 species, plus 3 potential ABA firsts pending acceptance, precisely the same number that Komito ended up with 15 years ago.

The bird that put him even was a Rustic Bunting visiting a feeder in Homer, Alaska, and there are several options that might give him the record outright. Hook-billed Kite in Texas, Great Skua in Virginia or North Carolina, Ivory Gull in Newfoundland, or any other random vagrant that could turn up in any corner of the US or Canada. In fact, he may need a couple more birds to cover for records that may not pass muster. In any case, Hayward is in full chase mode in the last week of the year, and we're all rooting for him. Records are made to be broken, after all.

You can follow along with Neil's final push at his entertaining blog, The Accidental Big Year. 
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(1) From: Flight Calls #98, American Birding Association