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, one young man did break a record.  Kiah Jasper, at the age of 20, broke the all time record for an Ontario Big Year.  He travelled thousands of miles, sometimes in terrible weather and on roads no birders had ever been to in the farther northern regions of Ontario, which, to put it in perspective has a larger area that Texas.  When it was all said and done, Kiah had seen 359 species, blowing by the previous record of 343 species set in 2017. So it’s not a coincidence that Kiah is the final guest in my 5 part series on the birders of the 2022 Ontario Big Year.  I’d like to thank, not just Kiah, but Susan, Andy, William and Ezra for joining me on this look back at the 2022 Ontario Big Year, with the Ontario Big 5.  These are young, knowledgeable and determined birders who chased not just birds, but their birding dreams too.  Spending a year traveling to the 4 corners of a Provence the size of Ontario was a daunting task and at the end of the year where they finished was less important than the adventure they lived and the friends they made along the way.  Not to mention all the amazing places they got to visit during the course of the year.  Ontario, was defiantly theirs to discover. So, please enjoy… … but first, an apology.  This episode was recorded back in early 2023, and was one of the first I recorded lay , before I had my proper recording setup.  Totally my fault.  In fact I should have been sacked right off, for failing to make my podcasts sound better early on.  I have persevered, and using all manor of sound adjusting audio tools I have tinkered with and managed this recording into something you may be able to listen to and understand.  I thank you for your understanding.  With that, I hope you enjoy.