Well, it’s September 1, 2024, the Dog Days of Birding are behind us and fall migration is underway, signalling the end of the summer breeding season and birds booking their flights south for the winter.  Happily for birders, there are no direct flights from the breeding grounds in the north to the wintering grounds in the south, which means we are graced by the presence of southern migrants.  When the wind is just right, shorebirds and seabirds pass through, many of them stopping to refuel at...

Welcome, birders and non birders who have to put up with the birders in their lives, to the Big Year Podcast, with me, the one, the only,(thankfully), Robert Baumander.  As I sit and type this introduction, it is August 1, 2024 and the unofficial start of The Dog Days of Summer.  Actually, for birders in Ontario, at least, the birding really begins to slow down near the beginning of July.  But even so, there have been a few rare birds to chase, including a Brown Booby and a Ruff.  Boobies are...

Today’s episode, features a trailblazer, who was the first woman to do a full out ABA Big Year and has been an inspiration to women in the birding world ever since she saw 723 species in 2008, one more than Sandy Komito’s first Big Year in 1986.  Lynn Barber is an author and artists and had done two Texas Big Years prior to her ABA Big Year and has since done Alaska and Wisconsin Big Years,  Her first Book, Extreme Birder is a must read for anyone considering doing their own big year.  She...

Brett Forsyth joins me to talk about his 2022 Self-powered Ontario Big Year

Welcome back to The Big Year Podcast.  Sorry to have been gone so long, but birding seemed to drag me away from editing more often than not in April.  Not to mention that I was recovering from a severe hand injury, when I fell after seeing both Ross’s and Snow Geese in Burlington in March.  I hyper extended all the fingers on my right hand, using it to brace myself and protect my camera as tripped over a rock and fell to the ground.   It is May 2, 2024 and I was supposed to publish this...

Hello there everybody,   Welcome back to The Big Year Podcast. This is part 2 of my chat with the new all time record holder for a Canada Big Year, Bruce DiLabio.  As I type this, it’s a sunny spring day in late March and the excitement of migration season is just around the corner.  It’s what all birders crave after a long, cold winter in the northern US and Canada. However, for those in the southern US, migration gets going an about month earlier.  And one of the best places to be in April...

Hello Birders, welcome back to The Big Year Podcast.  I am so excited to be back for a second season.  I wasn’t sure we’d get renewed but the birds tweeted their approval and desire to hear from even more Big Year birders, so here I am and boy do I have a great line up of guests ready to share their stories. Over the course of the spring and summer, you will get to hear form Lynn Barber, the one of the great ABA Big Year birders, and author of many books, including Extreme Birder: One Woman’s...

  Hello birders, and other non-feathered friends, and welcome to Episode 14 and the final episode of Season 1 of The Big Year Podcast.  I am thrilled to have Kelly-Sue O’Conner, who runs Birder Brains, who along with myself and many other birders, live with various mental health issues, including Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Post-concussion Syndrome.  In my case all three plus a few other, including Social Anxiety Disorder.  Boy, do I hate the word...

We are back. Welcome once again to the show about birders and their Big Years. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tiffany a while back and in a previous episode we were discussing the life changing events that accidentally pushed her into doing a Big Year in the Lower 48 states.  And today as we continue with our discussion we shall see how life changing doing a Big Year was for Tiffany.  At a crossroads in her life, during the pandemic  and as a single, unemployed new home owner, she threw...

Welcome to Episode 12 of The Big Year Podcast.   For those of you here for the first time, my name is Robert Baumander, but I spent 41 years as Captain Video for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Along the way I performed as a magician and Escape Artist, managed the computer system for Pizza Pizza, volunteered in elementary schools and The Hospital for Sick children doing magic and story telling and science classes.  I have done a variety of Big Years in North America since I became a birder in 2012,...

And a hearty welcome to episode 11 of the Big Year Podcast. I'm Robert. Baumander, and I'm your guide to the life of the big year birding experience. Late in the year 2011, which seems like a lifetime ago, I saw a little movie called, not surprisingly, The Big Year.      One of my favorite actors, Steve Martin, was starring in it. I was also a fan of Jack Black and remembered him from way back when I saw High Fidelity. And who doesn't love Owen Wilson? So I told Sue that I'd like to see it...

Welcome to Episode 11 of The Big Year Podcast.  In 2022 I completed a Canada Big Year.  According to eBird, I finished one short of the all time record.  But they don’t include the Indian Peafowl that live and breed in Victoria, British Columbia.  And if that darn Limpkin had just flown far enoughacross the Niagara river into Canadian airspace, I’d have counted 458 species for my Canada Big Year, and would have had the all time record.  But, if “ifs and buts…” However, in Ontario in 2022,...

Welcome to Part 4 of my 5 part series on the Birders of the Ontario 2022 Big Year. Today I will be talking to Ezra Campanelli who was one of the 3 birders that broke the all time record for species in an Ontario Big Year with 357 species seen.  He is one of a crop of young birders who are taking Ontario and the birding world by storm.  These young birders are so knowledgeable that they are teaching some of the veteran birders a thing or two along the way.  I hope you enjoy listening to this...

Welcome to Part 3 of my 5 episode series on the birders of the 2022 Ontario Big Year.  Three birders broke the all time record, including William Konze, who didn't even set out to do a Big Year, let alone break the record.  Though he didn't end up on top, his accomplishment is still a testament to his dedication and hard work. Travel in Ontario, which is even bigger than Texas, can be exhausting, sometimes chasing birds hundreds of miles away, driving 6 to 8 hours and in severe winer weather....

A long time ago in an era known as the Covid-19 Lockdowns, I met Andy Nguyen on a berm above the Grand River in Brantford, Ontario.  We were looking or a California Gull and before finding it, I ran off to look for a Yellow-browed Warbler in Oakville.  Because Andy was wearing a mask, as it was back in Covid times, I did not recognize him the next time we met.   But after a while, we got to know each other and became good birding buddies here in Southwestern Ontario.  We birded many weekends...

Welcome to another episode of the Big Year Podcast!  My journey across North America to talk to and see what makes Big Year Birders Tick.  It’s July 2, 2023 as I broadcast from my Secret Big Year recording location, deep in the basement of my Brantford home.  It’s a rainy day so I am stuck indoors, not willing to brave the elements for anything but the rarest birds sighting.  A far cry from what I or anyone else doing a big Year would do.  Big Year birders brave the weather and more in quest...

The month of May in Southwestern Ontario is all about songbird migration and seeing as many warblers as possible.  I knew I wasn't going to have time to edit previous podcasts and, naturally, no birders were going to have time to do sit down interviews that may cost them a Big Year Bird or Lifer, or just a skulking Mourning or Worm Eating Warbler. So, instead, I took my recording device on the road to Point Pelee National Park, Long Point and Rondeau Provincial Parks and City View Park in...

Today is May 1, 2023 and it is the official start of Spring Migration here in Southern Ontario.  Birders from far and wide, some doing their own Big Years, are beginning their own migration to Canada’s spring birding hotspot, Point Pelee National Park to welcome the songbirds home.  Down in Ohio, many birders will be making their way to The Biggest Week in American Birding.  Sue and I had to cancel our last trip there, as the Covid Pandemic Lockdowns were just being felt in the spring of...

I met Karen Miller on Canada Day in 2022.  I was running out of options to get close enough to Bill's Island, off of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, so I could see American Oystercatchers.  If the ferry had not been late, I'd have never met Karen and her husband Bill, who had been ferrying birders out to the island all day, to see these rare visitors to Canada. Then, on December 21 I was given an early Christmas present, in the form of a Green-tailed Towhee, another crazy-rare bird to show up in...

On today's episode we talk to Christian Hagenlocher.  At the age of 26 he did his 21st century version of a Big Year on a budget,(a tight budget), and saw 752 species. He was the youngest birder to ever pass 750, making it an even greater accomplishment.  Christian is creator of The Birding Project and author of the book, Falcon Freeway: A Big Year of Birding on a Budget. You can find it on Amazon,(link below).  He is now a middle school teacher in Washington State and recently returned from...

Episode 2 of the Big Year Podcast features Yve Morrell. I first met Yve Morrell in 2017 during her Big Year.  I had flown down to Texas to search for a Jabiru.  A bunch of us, including Yve, searched in vain for it for most of the day.  Many of us did get a Black Rail that day, so it wasn’t a total loss for ether of us.   What we didn’t know at the time is we were both booked on a pelagic with Debbie Shearwater in Californian and met again on the boat.  The highlight of the trip, for me, was...

He was featured in the book The Big Year by Mark Obmascik and the character of Kenny Bostick in the movie, based on the book, was, in part, based on some of Sandy’s exploits. His own book, I Came, I Saw, I Counted, recounts his 1998 Big Year and should be required reading for anyone planning his or her own Big Year.

Our first episode will feature Sandy Komito, who some say is the King of all Big Year Birders, having been only the second birder to ever see over 700 species when he set the ABA record in 1886 and broke his own record in 1998