The Big Year movie

He may do, but what happens with year lists is that you start out strong because all the birds are new, but the further you get into the year the harder it becomes. In New Zealand (many fewer birds than in Australia!!!) I generally get about 40-50 species in January, 10-20 in February, and then it just trails off with usually only one or two species a month unless I make a trip somewhere (like a pelagic trip will net about 20 more species). The same is true, but on a larger scale, for Australia or the USA.

Vagrants certainly count in a Big Year (they are what bulk the list up above the norm - if a Big Yearer doesn't go after the vagrants then he'll be beaten in numbers by someone who does, because both of them will be getting almost all of the same "regular" birds). In the movie the great spotted woodpecker and the pink-footed goose were both vagrants.

Introduced birds also count because where-ever in the world you are, the Big Year list is based on the official checklist for that country. Established populations of introduced birds such as common mynah or tree sparrow are on the Australian list so they count. If you see a canary flying round in your garden, though, that doesn't count because its just an escaped bird not part of a recognised established population. [For personal year/life/etc lists, you can list whatever you want and organise them however you want. Some people don't count introduced birds on their personal lists. It's all just for fun really].

Usually the area covered in a Big Year is either the geographical area "owned" by the country (eg, an Australian Big Year can include the Cocos-Keeling Islands, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, etc), or a multi-nation geographical unit (as used by the ABA which counts the USA, Canada, etc -- but not Hawaii, Guam, etc, even though they are owned by the USA).

 

I should also mention the biggest of all Big Years, when Alan Davies and Ruth Miller set off on a round-the-world twitchathon in 2008. They were aiming to beat the previous year record of 3662 species, and ended up with 4341.

This is their site but it sucks: The Biggest Twitch World Record Breakers

This is their book, which sucks even worse: [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biggest-Twitch-Around-World-Birds/dp/1408123878]The Biggest Twitch: Around the World in 4,000 Birds: Amazon.co.uk: Alan Davies, Ruth Miller: Books[/ame] -- I couldn't even get halfway through it before I gave up. It was so incredibly boring. Basically a list of "we went here, we saw this, then we went here and saw this".

 

well a good birding book is like "The Big Year" or Sean Dooley's "The Big Twitch" -they are funny and well-written, full of anecdotes about not just the birds but also about the exploits of actually finding the birds, people met along the way, all that sort of stuff: basically, to put it in movie terms because you don't read books, the difference between the acting of Greta Garbo and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. If you haven't read any birding tales then it is probably difficult to get what I'm trying to say though. I really do suggest you read at least The Big Twitch as it is an Australian one.

 

the number of birders in NZ is quite low (perhaps surprisingly given that it is famously known as a land of birds). The only "proper" Big Year in NZ that I ever heard of was done by Brent Stephenson (of birding company Wrybill Tours) in 2006. He got 206 species.

His list here: http://www.wrybill-tours.com/Assets/brents_2006_bigyear_list.pdf

Obviously owning a birding company (catering to international birders visiting NZ) means that he and the co-owner Sav always get relatively high year lists anyway because they do several NZ-wide trips per year. I usually get between 75 and 95 in a year in NZ.

 

maybe your wife could read some and give you the gist of them

 

up to 685 now: Birding for Devils: Number of the beast - the list so far

(the list is dated by bird so you can see how the number of new birds diminishes as the year progresses)

 

John Weigel is up to 700 as of today, with scarlet-chested parrot at Gluepot. Still a lot of the year to go, so its looking very good for him to break the Australian record.

 

good article on John Weigel's Big Year here: The watcher

 

he has now broken the Australian record with a semi-palmated plover at Simpson's Beach in Broome on 28 October (#721 on his Big Year list). Then he went to Lord Howe Island and added white-bellied storm petrel and Lord Howe woodhen, and today got a vagrant Franklin's gull at Paynesville for number 724. Still two months of the year left as well.

 

hey nanoboy, are you working this weekend? The Victoria Twitchathon (i.e. a 24 hour or 8 hour bird race) is on and you could enter it!! There's still time to enter, and it's all in good fun. You could have a husband and wife team!! Rules etc here (scroll down to Downloads): All Victoria Statewide | BirdLife Australia