Just my thoughts on different aspects of the Big Year, in no particular order…enjoy!

Stats and Costs of the Big Year

We drove 49,449 kms! and since we drive a hybrid plugin some of our travel was “free” so assuming average gas prices we figure we spent approximately $2,650 on gas and we spent $9,095 on accommodation and some restaurant meals although as a rule we took food with us. We walked 1,145 kms and that was truly disappointing – I had thought we would be hiking much more than that. I suppose you could suggest that we were efficient in our walking but very inefficient in our driving LOL. Jerry managed to get pictures of all but 11 birds and 7 of those were “heard only” birds anyway so he only missed pictures of 4 which is very good! We birded in every one of the 50 Counties in Ontario and found some very cool places to bird that we had never been to before.

In the beginning we were putting in long days and hiking for hours but as the year went by and the species needed were fewer and fewer we found ourselves driving many hours to spend a few minutes seeing one bird. I had hoped we would be able to bird the areas more but inevitably there were time constraints on us to get back for caregiving or other life needs. If we did not have the caregiving I imagine that this would not have been as much of an issue and we would have been able to just bird more and try to find more species for ourselves.

This hobby is really not about the numbers but instead about spending time in the company of birds and often other birders. I tried not to get sucked into the numbers too much BUT it is a Big Year after all and the expectation is that you will be trying to be the top birder in Ontario. Somehow, we have managed to stay at the top until the end with Jeremy Hatt only 3 birds behind and Margaret Hough and Jude Szabo placing 3rd and 4th in numbers. Remember that for most, if not all of us we have an extra bird with the Hoary Redpoll that was lumped with the Common so the counts are 1 bird more for the official year count. Huge Congratulations to Jeremy who managed those numbers working full time and to Margaret and Jude who are relatively new birders and managed those numbers. Margaret, Jude and ourselves often ended up at the same birds and if we were not we were cheering each other on and sharing information so we could all get the same rarities. Thirteen people have made it over the 300 this year and there have been 372 species seen in Ontario (373 if you count the Hoary Redpoll). We have seen 89.8% of the birds seen. Can I just round it up to the 90% that I wanted to achieve? There have only been 12 birders, including us, that have seen 335 or more in an Ontario year. This was far more than I thought we would achieve.

Once I had got the 300 so early and I realized I could likely hit 320 I was far more relaxed as we chased a rarity and meant it when I intoned my mantra “we either see the bird or we don’t”. It is crazy to me that if I had just gone for the 4 birds I now regret not going for and maybe taken on a few of the long distance chases I could have hit 340! I’m not sure how it will feel to not bird this intensively even next year with doing Canada and I don’t really feel that I will be trying to hit 300 again but I know many people that find they go for that benchmark every year now. So we will see how the numbers and listing manifests for us…

One of the absolute best things to come out of doing this Big Year is the people we have met and the friendships that have developed. It pushed me to talk to people more, to give out my card with my blog on it, to message birders I did not know and ask for help and information and overwhelmingly birders wanted to help, wanted to cheer us on, wanted to make sure we had seen a post. I won’t name you all as I don’t want to miss someone but you all know who you are and your advice, cheering and thumbs ups kept us going through the tough times. Many kept birds in scopes, stayed with birds until we and others arrived and shared in our excitement. I love this community of passionate, interesting people with sometimes just one thing in common – a love of birds! It was only through all of the birders out there that we achieved that number. Big Years are always a communal effort and the result belongs to all the birders in Ontario. The birders who go out every day, often to the same patch are usually the ones to find the rarities or the ones that stop at a new area for the first time and find something fantastic all contribute. There are many non-birders that find something that looks different and think to post it to a facebook group so that others can see that bird too. I have enjoyed helping other birders doing big years in past years and have always gotten a thrill from helping them achieve their goals in a small way.

Another hope was that our birding improved doing these years and I feel happy with our progress, particularly in learning bird songs and calls. We used Merlin a lot at the beginning of the year and especially in the spring when the bird song is strongest. I have managed to learn quite a few more songs and I certainly am way better at recognizing a “different” call and stopping to investigate what it is. We spent a lot of time on the lakes and I can proudly say that I can identify a Jaeger from a Gull and Cormorant now LOL. I can’t tell you what species of Jaeger but I feel much more comfortable looking through a spotting scope at far away dark spots! Whenever we birded with the elite birders we tried to ask questions as much as we could and they always graciously answered our queries and that translated to learning a lot more about many species. Both of us have upped our “pishing” game and I have managed multiple times to get birds to pop up for a look. We keep saying we want to record a really good pisher and then just replay it when we are in the field but doing it yourself and getting the response is waaay better.

Historically, Big Years have been a young man’s game and certainly the record holders generally show that. But I wanted to show that you can be older, have other responsibilities and not necessarily be that knowledgable and still post great numbers. Technology has enabled that with up to the minute posting of rarities, ebird allows you to search where any species can be found at any given time, and apps can help you identify birds you see by song or pictures. If anyone is thinking it might be fun to try one I urge you to give it a go and take a chance. There were other birders who had committed to doing their own versions of Big Years and/or trying to get over the 300 number and I like to think maybe we inspired them to keep at it just as they inspired us to keep going. It was often the same group of us chasing rarities and that made it much more fun when we could celebrate others with their own numbers and lifers.

I absolutely loved doing this Big Year, yes, there were times when I wanted to give up and that it just seemed too hard, BUT, the fun times far outweighed the bad. The joy I still feel every time I am out and raising my binoculars to see a bird clearly is the same joy from the first years we started this. The thrill is still there. The peace I get from being out in nature and the calmness that comes when I’m in the woods has kept me grounded for the three years we have been caring for Jerry’s mom.

And finally, I have to give a massive shout out to my husband and partner of 46 years, who to be honest, I dragged into this by saying we would just be trying for 300 knowing full well I would want to go as hard as I could. Way back in 2013 it was my idea to get off the couch and start listing and then I suggested he could start taking pictures so we (I) could establish my reputation as an honest birder and it was my crazy idea to do a trio of Big Years when we realized we would be caregiving for a number of years and not able to travel far. He has embraced these goals of mine and happily (for the most part) come along for the ride and I think he is now hooked just as I am. He did the vast majority of those 49,500 kilometers of driving this year as I was navigating, checking updates and making plans as we traveled this province and he did it with me often criticizing his driving – too fast, too slow, watch the road, that’s the long way! etc etc. I promise I absolutely won’t do that for the Canada year….as much! LOL Love you! Thanks for helping me reach my goal!

And a big thank you to all of you for reading along, hope I have been mildly entertaining and made you feel like you came along.