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

Guatemala Birding - And Other Good Reads

If all works out, and it should, I will be making at trip to Guatemala in April. As usual, I have been looking into what would be the most helpful birding guides to take along, knowing I will likely have little or no time to do more than memorize less-than-a-second glimpses of

Birding regions in Guatemala

exotic specimens flying by, perched in plain site but me being in a car speeding by, or being in the perfect spot to stop and look but not have the birding guide with me - such as been my experience to-date when traveling with work. I may try to better prepare myself ahead of time, so if my worse-case-scenarios happen, at least I will be about to make the best of a less-than-best situation. I found a nice Website today about Guatemala birding - lots of information, the kind of stuff that can help ensure better success for a casual business trip birder like me. Guatemala Bird Watching - Authentic Nature has the U.S. Agency for International Development as one of its sponsors. Ecotourism has become an industry that helps developing countries take advantage of their natural resources in ways that promote them - rather than clear cut them for short-term economic gains.

In doing my prep work for birding on this upcoming trip, I have found the reader reviews on the Amazon Website helpful when reading the poorest to middling book ratings. These seem to bring out the best faults with the books, and can supplement the more positive reviews - helping to read-between-the-lines. Today, when trying decide between A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb, and Birds of Mexico and Central America: (Princeton Illustrated Checklists) by Ber Van Perlo, I came across a review that not only confirmed the critiques about

Princeton Checklist (I decided on buying the pushing-four-pounds Howell and Webb guide), but also gave another helpful recommendation: "use the premiere Belize guide" as a supplement in the field. Another quick search on Amazon revealed the title mentioned in the review: Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Belize by H. Lee Jones and A.C. Vallely - only problem with this supplement, it was listed for $103.77. Since I was in read-the-reviews-mode, another piece of good advice, this time in the Belize "over-priced" Belize guide review: "Go to American Birding Association web site and then to birding products. Their price is $12.50 for the same edition. (I'm guessing the price listed on Amazon is a mistake.)" It just goes to show, shop-around-prices.

I may have read about the American Birding Association (ABA) when reading the history of birding in Of A Feather: A Brief History Of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul (another great book). (1) The ABA now partners with Buteo Book for their birding reference listings, and as the reviewer above mentioned, the Belize bird book was only $12.50 plus $3.73 for shipping by USPS - a far cry for the errant Amazon prices. There are a plethora of other birding book offerings available for viewing on the Buteo Book Website, but it is still best to keep cross-checking prices - it turns out the Howell and Webb book is $5 cheaper at Amazon, and because it costs $39.60, shipping is free with the Super Saver Shipping option. The ABA Website looks interesting - I will need to check it out more.
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(1) I remember NPR's All Things Considered had a regular feature last year of notable writers and others giving summer book reading
recommendations, in sets of three. If I were asked to give my esoteric summer time (or any other time of the year) three-book reading list recommendation, it would have to be: (a) the Weidensaul birding history book Of a Feather; (b) Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection by George Black; and (c) Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James. These three are absolutely great books to hold in your hands, and smell, and slowly read for the full effect of what Johannes Gutenberg must have intended from the beginning - Kindle and other electronic media just do not do printed words on bound paper justice.