The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. First published in 2004.
I joined PaperBackSwap a few months ago. Having been a huge fan in a former lifetime, I had a very large collection of X-files-related books in which I was no longer interested, and the book swapping site seemed like a great way to get rid of them while also allowing me to bulk up my bird library.
One of the first books I swapped into my collection was Mark Obmascik's The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession. In it, Obmascik tells the story of three birders going for a Big Year. The three were trying to see the most birds in all of North America from January 1st through December 31st, 1998.
The story is told chronologically, following the three Big Year competitors month to month and jumping from one to the other as time progresses. Obmascik does a great job filling the reader in on each participant's back story, providing telling anecdotes and other important historical contexts.
For most people the idea of devoting an entire year to a personal passion is irresistible, regardless of how one feels about a North American Big Year. As I follow our state birding email listserv, I enjoy reading of local rarities and the people who chase them. I can see the appeal of listing, and I get a kick out of following rare birds vicariously via the listserv emails, but I haven't done much to chase rare local birds so far. Even so, I can definitely relate to the triumphs and defeats experienced by the three heroes of this book. Obmascik had me laughing out loud and tsking in sympathy while the Big Year participants juggled personal issues and the occasional logistical snafu during their year of the most intense birding.
I give The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession 5 Goldfinches out of 5.
The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction by Glen Chilton. First published September 2009. The Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius, was a striking black and white eider-like sea duck that was never known to be common, and is believed to be the first...
The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year by Pete Dunne. First published 1992. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 355 pages. What birder hasn't dreamed of having a big year? Sure, as a newbie to the hobby, one's first reaction might be that big year birding is slightly,...
Birds of the Middle East by Richard Porter & Simon Aspinall. Second edition published 2010. As reviewed and pictured: Softcover, 384 pages. This new title from Princeton Field Guides covers over 800 species found in the Middle East (defined for this book as the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon,...
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien. First published 2008. As reviewed and pictured: Softcover, 237 pages. A few months ago, I was holding Pip, FCWR's education Barn Owl (pictured below), at a public program. A woman came up to...
