As a follow-up to Mort¹s post below let me add that I met Christian
Hagenlocher in Maine earlier this summer and his ³big year² is much more
than just about birds but about the people who love birds and those he¹s met
along the way. I invite everyone to check out this young man¹s adventures
at: http://www.thebirdingproject.com
Cheers!
<")
( \
/ |` Cyndi Routledge
Southeastern Avian Research
Specializing in Winter Hummingbird banding
1515 N. Willow Bend Court
Clarksville, TN 37043
931-206-3517
From: <tn-bird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Morton Massey
<massey6932@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: <massey6932@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 10:35 AM
To: Tn Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TN-Bird] ABA Big Year Record Being Shattered
I saw Richard Blanton¹s post this morning and thought I would share a little
more information about what is going on with ABA Big Years this year. As
the blog post states, it looks like there will be 4 individuals who will
make it over 700 this year. But two of the individuals will easily exceed
750 and probably will end up around 775. What most folks don¹t know about
the current leader, John Weigel, is he is from Australia. He started
birding in the US on January 1 and plans on birding till December 31st this
year without taking a break. An incredible commitment. He did back to back
Big Years in Australia in 2013 and 2014 and broke the Australian record both
years. John is 61 and an incredibly nice humble guy.
Olaf Danielson (currently at 748) has done a US Big Year but it was a ³Birds
seen Naked Big Year². Yes, this is true. Amongst other places he went to
Attu that year and all the participants had to endure him birding naked.
Not sure what his total was but I heard he set a record.
The other two birders, Christian Hagenlocher and Laura Keene set out to just
make it to 700, which it appears they will do.
I had the pleasure of being one of the 11 birders who got to go to Attu this
year. John, Christian and Laura were on that trip along with the current
record holder Neil Haywood and Brandon Reo who had over 700 ABA birds doing
a Big Year last year. Rather intimidating to be with 5 birders who will
have seen 700 ABA birds in one year while it took me 45 years. But oh what
a great experience to be with so many fascinating and dedicated birders.
Oh, and I got to meet Olaf briefly at the Adak airport. He was arriving to
go on a 3 day pelagic as we were leaving. He did have his clothes on
fortunately.
Morton Massey
Knoxville, TN
