A review by judyward
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

4.0

I have to admit that I'm interested in bird watching--I know, I know, it doesn't fit into my Devil May Care attitude--and always felt that I had a decent life list. That is until I picked this book up. Who knew that there is Competitive Birdwatching? Certainly not me. And A Big Year? That was a completely new concept to me. Apparently you start on January 1st and count the number of bird species that you see during a calendar year. Prior to 1998, the record Big Year was 721 species. In 1998, three men, Sandy Komito (who held the 721 record), Greg Miller, and Al Levantin found themselves in a neck and neck race to spot the most birds that year. Individually, they traveled thousands of miles from the Dry Tortugas off Florida to Attu in the Aleutian Islands and endured unbelievably harsh conditions in order to score sightings of additional species. Since North America has only 645 naturally nesting species, the lists had to be augmented with rarities and accidentials--birds that normally were not seen in North America. While the birder I was rooting for didn't win, the winner set a new record with 745 different birds. A fascinating book about a little known competitive event. I'm never going to view bird watchers the same way again.