I had an absolute blast recording this episode of The Bird Banter Podcast. Both Tammy and Dave McQuade have the energy you’d expect from a couple doing their 5th consecutive lower 48 Big Year, and have a great story to tell. Maybe the most interesting part of the episode to me was hearing about their new boat that they use for pelagic trips on the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike many west coast pelagic trips, where large flocks of birds are relatively easily found, in the gulf the birds are found in much smaller numbers, and congregate around bait fish, so it’s easy to miss them. Dave and Tammy have the solution. A fast boat with super powered radar that can detect a single bird as small as a term from two miles away. Then with their fast boat they can race over to see the bird. They can cover over 300 miles in a single day of birding.
Here is a photo of the boat:
This is the radar:
They are exploring what they call ABA birding’s last frontier, the relatively unbirded gulf waters.
I also talked about several other birder’s big years in the podcast introduction. Here are some links to those that I know of with websites or blogs:
https://www.facebook.com/david.mcquade.96
https://www.facebook.com/david.mcquade.96
Dorian Anderson’s blog from his bicycle big year.
Christian Hagenlocher’s The Birding Project page: .
Blair Bernson’s blog with details of many of his 50 state saga:
Olaf Danielson’s Big Year Blog:
John Weigel’s 2019 Big Year blog
The book I mentioned outlining a strategy to find 650 ABA birds on a budget is
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Birdfinder: A Birders Guide to Planning North American Trips
by Jerry Cooper. You can find it used on Amazon.
Noah Strycker wrote the book Birding Without Borders, available anywhere books are sold.
I am currently working on competition only with myself for Pierce County and Washington State Big Years I have no illusions about “winning” either year, but am enjoying getting around and finding what I can. By starting each year fresh, it gives incentive to get out to lots of places and go birding.
I currently have found 202 species in Pierce County, after Levee Pond dried up just in time for migration and yielded 5 FOY shorebirds this week, and 291 Washington State species for 2019. I am aiming for >300 this year, and it is pretty reachable with at least one more Pelagic trip planned and an Eastern WA trip set for early Sept that should yield a few new year birds.
Here are photos of some of the Levee Pond bonanza seen this week. From top to bottom, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, and Semi-palmated Sandpiper.
Until next time, good birding and good day.