And so our final count was 431 birds seen across Canada which is 79.5% of the 542 species seen in Canada this year. We were the top ebirders in Canada and join only 7 other people that have birded over 400 in Canada in any given year. We had 5 birds that were “Heard Only” and Jerry missed pictures for only 19 species. We added 16 LIFERS to our Life List.

We birded in every province, drove 47,379km which was 2,000km LESS than we drove doing the Ontario 300 year. We walked 1,125km which was about the same as the Ontario year and that seems crazy right? You would think more birds seen, more walking and driving necessary. Maybe we just ended up being more efficient? I think the difference is in chasing – we did not chase birds across Canada that would have involved flights and longer drives. We spent $20,773 on travel and we estimate another $2,500 on gas. We missed at least 9-10 birds that I had expected to get.

With a couple of adjustments of a longer winter trip to BC, a pelagic from the top of Vancouver Island in June and heading out East a week or two earlier I think we would have got most of the 10 birds so I think 440-450 is possible with just driving and that one winter trip to BC in case anyone is contemplating a run at Canada. I have lots of lists and spreadsheets to share.

In Ontario this year Jude managed to get an incredible 351 species in Ontario. Only 3 others have had higher totals. And Margaret saw 336 species to best our number from last year by 1! Congrats to both of them on a fabulous year. We managed to see 301 in Ontario this year to be part of the 300 club for the second year.

I do not plan on making it a habit of being over 300 but we will see. Barbara has managed to do it for 15 years in a row! I’m not sure I want to go down that road.

We had a fantastic time traveling across Canada, we truly have a remarkable country and while our focus was on the birds we did manage to see some iconic spots along the way. I made a point of sitting in as many of the red chairs I could find in parks throughout the country. Each time I sat we took a picture and then I spent a few moments soaking in the view and feeling very grateful that we were healthy enough to be doing this traveling.

We were originally going to do this year at the same time as Susan and Jim Nagy. They had planned a different kind of Canada Big Year for 2025 that would have involved flights and tourist locations and we met them a few times in 2024 to plan and share the task of making up bird lists and where to see what. Sadly, with Jim’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent death in August 2025 their Big Year did not happen so we were acutely aware of how lucky we were to be able to complete this year in good health.

As always the best part of the year was meeting so many people and sharing this passion of birding. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for following along and all your support and well-wishes. Thanks for all the help with reporting birds, chasing birds down for us, keeping them in scopes and cheering us on. Thanks to birders across Canada that shared information with us and made suggestions about where and when to travel. A very big thanks to my friend and non-birder Marg, who kindly sent me corrections to the blog every week. I am always looking to have a blog that is error-free! I suspect she has increased her knowledge of birds without really wanting to. I remain hopeful that one day she will suggest going birding LOL!

It has been a crazy, wonderful 3 years and of course we can now say it went by so fast! The birding at this level kept us sane through the worst years of care-giving for Babi allowing us to de-stress instead of using copious amounts of alcohol or drugs. LOL. I hope that birding and all the learning we continue to soak up keeps Alzheimers away from our brains.

My dreams for the last 3 years have almost been exclusively about birding. Finding birds, out birding, chasing birds, missing birds. It was very strange. When we were traveling and in the midst of spring migration I was always thinking about what birds next, what birds missed and that must have carried into my dreams. I guess it shows the intensity and focus that happens with Big Years. I’m happy to report that in the last couple of weeks those birding dreams have lessened and I’m dreaming of other aspects of life with just the occasional bird dream.

So what is next for us? I’m sleeping in January 1 and then we will get out and start the list for 2026 without URGENCY! We are planning a trip to Costa Rica in March, our first foray into birds in South America. I am a little frightened to open the door to birding world-wide but it is so tempting to go somewhere where hundreds of new, colourful birds are possible.

We also want to start finding and traveling to “Birding Spectacles”. Massive migrations of species, mating dances and rituals, nesting colonies. Send me your ideas of what we need to see and where. Hopefully, we can catch up with a few this year too.

I plan on continuing the blog, probably not weekly, but I have enjoyed writing it and people have told me they enjoy reading it. It acts as a journal and keepsake to remind me of these birding years as I move towards my dotage. A quick re-read in the future will leave us shaking our heads and considering, “how did we manage to complete 3 consecutive Big Years and end up tops in Ontario and Canada back to back years?” One bird at a time, one day at a time…

Good Birding!