I have been intrigued with the idea of Big Years since first reading and then seeing the movie The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson way back. A big year is a personal challenge among birders to identify as many species of birds by sight or sound in a single calendar year and a certain geographic area. It is on the honour system so many birders try to capture a picture of all the birds they see for irrefutable proof. I’m naturally competitive and it has a crazy kind of appeal BUT I know trying to break records would not be good for my mental and physical health. The stress I would put myself under would no doubt end in someone’s death LOL and not necessarily my own! Still many birders choose not to try for the records and to just compete against themselves with arbitrary rules. So, early this year I came up with an idea, three consecutive Big Years of 200, 300, and 400. Two hundred species seen in Brant County in year 1, three hundred species in Ontario in year 2 and four hundred species seen in Canada in year 3. Crazy huh? But cool, right? They say when you are retired you need to have goals!

Back in 2013 when we started listing, only 187 species of birds were seen in Brant County and the highest ebirder had only 113 species! There are not a lot of birders in Brant County so those of us here have taken on the mission to bird more in the county. It was not until 2016 that 206 species were seen in the county and the top birder was still only seeing 164. Finally in 2020 there were 234 species seen with 3 birders over 200 and then in 2021 Bill Lamond saw 226 out of the 237 birds seen! Since then there are usually 4-5 birders that manage to hit the 200 mark. Not super hard, but it requires a lot of days birding, in a small geographic area and you have to chase rarities in order to hit the 200. I have seen over 200 species this year and I’ll tell that story in another blog…

In Ontario there is a large population of birders (thousands) who are super keen and 300 species is the benchmark for many Big Years. In any given year there are around 370 species seen in Ontario and most years 10-12 people hit the 300. In 2022 many people decided to do Big Years (covid ended) so there were a record 21 people over 300 and a new record set of 359 species seen by Kiah Jasper. This year the numbers are back to the norm with 14 birders hitting the 300 mark so far and the top birder seeing 328 species.

You would think that if you can get 300 in Ontario then 400 across Canada would be easy but the larger the geographic area the harder to physically get to the birds. Plus, the birds you need, inevitably, are seen in the other provinces at the same time so you need to make decisions about when to hit spring migration in British Columbia without missing too much of spring migration in Ontario. I’m also not planning on getting on planes to chase a rare bird in BC only to hear of another in Newfoundland so 400 will be a real challenge with just driving across Canada to the east and to the west. In Canada 530 species are usually seen and in most years only 1-4 people manage to cross the 400 mark. Currently an astonishing new record is being set by Bruce DiLabio with 480 species seen and he is the only birder over 400. The previous record was 457! It’s a vast territory to cover and will be the most challenging year for sure.

My previous best numbers for these three locations happened in 2022 because we travelled out west and birded along the way.

Brant County 199 species

Ontario 285 species

Canada 370 species

See, I have been close to the 200,300, and 400 and they are completely doable with lots of planning and good birding karma coming back to us.

Stay tuned…we start January 1!