If you had one year of sabbatical, what would you do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3MiQHyOAyM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAN1G22Mty4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGgq5FdaaA8
I came across these guys on Youtube, and immediately sent it over to my best friend, who loves bird photography. And what do you know, he says he was thinking of taking a break from life and doing something like this.
It is the ‘Big Year’.
What is a ‘Big Year’? It is a challenge to see as many bird species in a set period of time, in this case, one year. Here’s the Wiki.
A big year is a personal challenge or an informal competition among birders who attempt to identify as many species of birds as possible by sight or sound, within a single calendar year and within a specific geographic area. Popularized in North America, big years are commonly carried out within a single U.S. state or Canadian province, or within larger areas such as the Lower 48 contiguous states, within the official American Birding Association (ABA) area, or sometimes the entire globe. The ABA big year record of 840 species was set by Andrew Pochonita of Southern California in 2019.[1] The big year world record of 6,852 species was set in 2016 by Arjan Dwarshuis of the Netherlands [Wiki]
Fascinating.
I bought several books to learn for myself.
Birding Without Borders, by Noah K. Strycker
Birding on Borrowed Time, by Phoebe Snetsigner