'The Big Year' by Mark Obmascik. (3 Viewers)

[Doug]

Steve,

Thanks for the tip off, I shall seek out this book.

It is hard to get a copy of Sandy Komito's book, 'I Came, I Saw, I Counted' in the UK.

Do you have the ISBN for Sandy's book, by any chance? I would love to read it.

 

[Andrew]

Do you have the ISBN for Sandy's book, by any chance? I would love to read it.

It is published by Bergen Publishing Co. I have not got a copy so I dfon't know the ISBN actually. If you get a copy let me know.

Check this out . . . http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/attu2.html

I don't think I will be able to use this as I can't send US dollars.

 

[Doug]

Thank you for the lead Andrew - after I have moved house I will try and get a copy from him - I have ordered the Obmascik book already.

 

[Vectis Birder]

I got myself a copy of "The Big Year" today in Waterstone's, and started to read it this afternoon, while sat in my car in a car park adjacent to Southampton Docks (a nice sunny day and time to kill). It is unputdownable, and I nearly missed an appointment because of it! So far, superb.

I have done some birding in Australia, but I'd love to do North and South America, as well as Africa, if I could ever afford it.

 

[Andrew]

I often took it to bed to read myself to sleep but it kept me awake!

 

[Vectis Birder]

It kept me up until gone 2 am this morning and I managed to finish it off before I went out at 11! Thoroughly enjoyable book and what a bunch of characters these people are. Greg Miller got most of my admiration as he was so determined to do his Big Year, despite the handicaps of a full time job and lack of money. The bit with him in the Everglades hunting for flamingoes in a canoe (him not the flamingoes!) and getting lost and muddy was hilarious.

 

[Quacker]

Just out of interest, Is there an equivalent of this based on British Birding?

Steve

 

[Andrew]

It kept me up until gone 2 am this morning and I managed to finish it off before I went out at 11! Thoroughly enjoyable book and what a bunch of characters these people are. Greg Miller got most of my admiration as he was so determined to do his Big Year, despite the handicaps of a full time job and lack of money. The bit with him in the Everglades hunting for flamingoes in a canoe (him not the flamingoes!) and getting lost and muddy was hilarious.

And the Flamigoes were only Roseate Spoonbills! I forget, did he get the Flamingoes in the end?

 

[Andrew]

Just out of interest, Is there an equivalent of this based on British Birding?

Steve

I would certainly be interested in such a book!

 

[Vectis Birder]

He did indeed get the flamingoes. The following day, he decided to walk on the footpath (which he had wanted to avoid as it was plagued by mozzies) and he saw them from there.

 

[Andrew]

Ah, I remember now!

 

[Bluetail]

Just out of interest, Is there an equivalent of this based on British Birding?

Steve

The only one I know is Richard Millington's "A Twitcher's Diary", an account of his 1980 year list. But it is in diary format rather than prose, so I suspect very different from the American tale. Out of print now, I think.

 

[Andrew]

sadly I have to say 'A Twitcher's Diary' is not a patch on 'The Big Year', I read it many months ago and struggled to finish it, it was a real bore.

 

[Vectis Birder]

I have seen copies of "A Twitcher's Diary" on Amazon. It's the sort of thing that I'd pick up for a couple of quid at a second hand bookshop, but probably not go entirely out of my way to track down.

Is "A Twitcher's Diary" the sort of diary that reads (for example): "1st January, went to Bedford to see the______, dipped, totally gutted, returned home" type thing, or is there more "flesh on the bones" so to speak?

 

[Bluetail]

I have seen copies of "A Twitcher's Diary" on Amazon. It's the sort of thing that I'd pick up for a couple of quid at a second hand bookshop, but probably not go entirely out of my way to track down.

Is "A Twitcher's Diary" the sort of diary that reads (for example): "1st January, went to Bedford to see the______, dipped, totally gutted, returned home" type thing, or is there more "flesh on the bones" so to speak?

Not really; your first instinct was right!

 

[mountain man]

Yes, it's a truly dire read.

Some of the piccies are nice, but the writing style is perhaps the most impersonal and unenthusiastic you will ever come across on the subject of watching birds.

 

[Bluetail]

Did anyone ever count up how many birds Millington actually saw that year? (Oh, what a sad, sad question! Why am I interested?!)

 

[mountain man]

I think it may have been 313. But I don't know why I think that. I don't ever remember counting them up - unless I was phenomenally drunk.

 

[Vectis Birder]

I seem to recall that some years back, when A Twitcher's Diary first appeared, the RSPB censored the title in one of its magazine adverts. The offending word was "Twitcher's"! Mark Cocker mentions that in "Birders..." as well. Hilarious (and a wee bit sad)...

 

[Andrew]

I have seen copies of "A Twitcher's Diary" on Amazon. It's the sort of thing that I'd pick up for a couple of quid at a second hand bookshop, but probably not go entirely out of my way to track down.

Is "A Twitcher's Diary" the sort of diary that reads (for example): "1st January, went to Bedford to see the______, dipped, totally gutted, returned home" type thing, or is there more "flesh on the bones" so to speak?

It certainly would not tax a primary school class's literary prowess!