My first exposure to the concept of watching birds for enjoyment came when I was about 9 years old during a family camping trip in Colorado when my father got very excited about seeing a Western Tanager, perhaps his first. However, I did not take up the sport myself until twenty some years later. It was my wife Courtney who gave me my first field guide and real set of binoculars. Courtney is not an avid bird watcher herself, but she saw that I had a combination of great interest and little skill and she sought to raise the level of the latter a little closer to the former.

At about that time, we moved from Boston to Los Angeles which made it even easier to enjoy my new past-time. However, the more birds I saw, the more birds I realized I had yet to see. I would gaze in amazement at the pictures of Black Oystercatchers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Elf Owls, Harlequin Ducks and others and think, "I wonder when I'll see those?" Well, about 2/3 thirds of the way through 2003, I decided I would take the following year off and "see them all." As far as I knew at the time, no one had ever done this before (why would anyone?). I soon learned that "seeing them all" was unrealistic as many of the birds in my book rarely made it into North America in a given year. I also learned that, in fact, so many people had undertaken this endeavor that it actually had a name - a "Big Year". [Note: I wish they had come up with a different name. "Big Year" sounds just a little too child like. "Mommy, mommy look! I'm having a Big Year!"]

There are numerous book accounts of Big Years. Kenn Kaufman recounts his year of hitch-hiking the continent in "Kingbird Highway" (1973), Jim Vardaman tells of almost breaking the 700 mark in "Call Collect: Ask for Birdman" (1979), and Sandy Komito describes details his two record-breaking efforts in "Birding's Indiana Jones" (1987) and "I Came, I Saw, I Counted" 1998. Sandy's 1998 attempt, along with the stories of two other birders, Greg Miller and Al Levantin, was more recently chronicled in Mark Obmascik's appropriately titled "The Big Year". Sandy's record is an amazing 745 species seen in a single year.

One thing that quickly became apparent is that my Big Year exploits would differ significantly from those who came before me. One reason for that is that it was clear I wasn't going to be breaking any records, so there was little temptation to plunk down hundreds of dollars on a last-minute flight to chase a rare bird. A second reason is that, since I would be seeing many basic birds for the first time, it seemed a little silly to chase after rarities. Also, I would linger much longer on birds that were lifers for me, whereas the more seasoned veterans could simply "tick and go". Lastly, because my skills were so lacking, it simply took me much longer to find my target birds on each trip and I almost always returned home with many unchecked boxes.

In an age where everyone needs an angle, I do think I have one major advantage over those that have come before me. Having seen so few birds to start out and having been to so few of the more famous and delightful bird watching hot spots, I can certainly argue that I will pack more new experiences into my year than the veterans were able to pack into theirs. In fact, I might set an informal (and probably completely undocumented) record for most new life birds in a single year. We'll see ...