American Birding Podcast

In recent years it has seemed as though doing an ABA Area Big Year means that you have to write a book about it, but the form’s roots can be traced to Roger Tory Peterson himself. What makes them so popular? Are they travelogue, sporting conquest, adventure, or some combination? Or is the appeal as simple as wish fulfillment? 10,000 Birds media reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media review editor Frank Izaguirre join host Nate Swick to talk about Big Year narratives and what makes them great in the first edition of the ABP Birding Book Club.

Also, the USFWS disappoints with new rules for the Duck Stamp.

ABA members are eligible for a 15% discount to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World subscription. Log into your ABA account to get the code.

Books discussed in this episode:

Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year – Barber, Lynn

Big Years, Biggest States: Birding in Texas and Alaska – Barber, Lynn

The Biggest Twitch: Around the World in 4,000 Birds – Davies, Alan & Ruth Miller

The Feather Quest: A North American Birder’s Year – Dunne, Pete

Een Bevlogan Jaar (Dutch) – Dwarshuis, Arjan

Roads, Peoples, Birds, Mountaintops, and Billabongs – Fisher, Dean

The Jewel Hunter – Gooddie, Chris

Falcon Freeway: A Big Year of Birding on a Budget – Hagenlocher, Christian

Looking for the Wild – Hancock, Lyn

Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year – Hayward, Neil

Kingbird Highway: The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand – Kaufman, Kenn

Birding’s Indiana Jones: A Chaser’s Diary – Komito, Sandy

I Came, I Saw, I Counted – Komito, Sandy

Adventures of a Louisiana Birder: One Year, Two Wings, Three Hundred Species – Lima, Marybeth

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession – Obmascik, Mark

Wild America – Peterson, Roger Tory & Dean Fisher

Birding Without Borders – Strycker, Noah

Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent’s Natural Soul – Weidensaul, Scott